Who Will Be Next CM, Siddaramaiah Or Shivakumar? Congress To Hold Meeting Over Karnataka Dilemma

After registering a huge and thumping win in the Karnataka Assembly polls, there has been a great dilemma that who would be the Congress’ next face of the chief minister post. Interestingly, for Congress, this would definitely be an acid test to pick between the state’s former chief minister Siddaramaiah and Congress’ chief DK Shivakumar for the CM post. However, a team of observers has been appointed by the Congress met the newly-elected Karnataka MLAs on Sunday to get their vote on who should get the top post. The team will head to Delhi at 10 AM today and hold discussions with the national leadership, which includes Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Rahul Gandhi.

Siddaramaiah & Shivakumar are likely to be in Delhi today

Moreover, it is expected that both the leaders, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar are likely to be in the national capital today to meet the party’s high command. According to sources, both the leaders though have been asked to wait and only come to Delhi if called by the party.

When asked if Shivkumar would visit Delhi today, he responded to the media, “Still haven’t decided whether to go or not.”

Kharge would announce the CM’s face

After the high-level meeting of the MLAs in Bengaluru, the party announced that the final decision would be taken by Congress’ national party supremo, Kharge. Congress General Secretaries Sushil Kumar Shinde, Deepak Babaria, and Jitendra Singh Alwar were the observers at the meeting.

The supporters of both DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah shouted slogans outside the Bengaluru hotel where the meeting took place.

Oath ceremony is to be held on Thursday

The sources also said that the new Karnataka Chief Minister and the cabinet will take oath on Thursday.

Both the leaders have made no secret of their ambition to become Chief Minister and had been involved in a game of political one-upmanship in the past.

Whilst the eight-time MLA Shivakumar is considered to be the Congress’ “troubleshooter,” whereas the Ex-CM Siddaramaiah has a pan-Karnataka appeal.

The Congress had entered the campaign phase with the challenge of keeping at bay the factionalism. After winning 135 seats in the 224-member Karnataka assembly, the party put up a united front with Congress chief Kharge and the two CM hopefuls addressing the media and party workers together.

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Congress’ comeback after 30 years

This time, the Congress has also made history after 30 years in terms of both seats and vote share. The closest the Congress came to this score was in 1999 when it won 132 seats and had a vote share of 40.84 per cent. In 1989, it won 178 seats with a vote share of 43.76 per cent.

Taking notes from the BJP won only 66 seats, down from 104 in the 2018 state election. It did not win a single seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) category. Karnataka has 51 reserved constituencies, out of which 36 are for Scheduled Castes (SC) candidates and 15 for ST candidates.