Bengaluru (PTI): The first session of the 16th Karnataka Legislative Assembly, after the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government came to power in the state began on Monday, for the oath taking of all the newly-elected MLAs.

According to Legislative Assembly officials, all the 224 newly elected legislators will take oath as MLAs, during the three-day session, which will also see the election of a new Speaker.

Oath taking of MLAs is underway in the Assembly, which is being conducted by senior most legislator Congress' R V Deshpande as the Protem Speaker.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Ministers - G Parameshwara, K H Muniyappa, M B Patil, K J George, Satish Jarkiholi, Priyank Kharge- were among the first few to take oath as MLAs.

At the beginning of the session, Deshpande said, "We have all been elected and come here with the blessings of people of Karnataka.

There are some senior leaders and I can also see some new faces. We have to put efforts for the all-round development of the state."

"Despite political differences, for the sake of the state's development and progress, we will all have to work together to build a model Kannada naadu, a Kannada state, which is prosperous, and all sections of people live with peace and harmony," he added.

Siddaramaiah was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second term, along with state Congress President D K Shivakumar as Deputy Chief Minister, and eight legislators as Ministers on Saturday.

The Chief Minister on Saturday after the first cabinet meeting had said, "We are calling the Assembly session for three days -- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we are requesting the Governor, because the new Assembly has to be constituted before May 24."

In the May 10 elections to the 224-member Assembly, the Congress scored an emphatic victory by bagging 135 seats, while the ruling BJP and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19 seats respectively.

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Maddipadu (Andhra Pradesh) (PTI): The Andhra Pradesh police on Wednesday summoned film director Ram Gopal Varma for questioning in connection with posting of morphed photographs of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan on social media.

A Prakasam district police team visited Varma’s Jubilee Hills residence in Hyderabad today and served the notice personally to the director around 10 am to appear before the investigation officer at Maddipadu police station on November 19.

“We served the notices to (Varma) to appear before the investigation officer...,” Prakasam district superintendent of police AR Damodar said.

After receiving the notice, Varma informed police that he would attend the probe, said a police official.

On November 11, Prakasam district police registered a case against the director for allegedly posting those morphed photographs on social media.

The case was booked on the basis of a complaint received from one Ramalingam (45) from Maddipadu under various sections.

Ramalinga filed the case as the alleged social media posts reportedly undermined the standing of the CM, Deputy CM and their family members in the society and also hurt their personalities.