Bengaluru: All eyes are on a key meeting scheduled today of the newly chosen legislative members of the Congress in Karnataka after the grand old party registered a resounding victory in the assembly elections, ousting the BJP from the South.
Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President D K Shivakumar are strong claimants and front-runners for the coveted post.
In the May 10 elections to the 224-member Assembly, the Congress scored an emphatic victory with 135 seats, while the ruling BJP and the former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19, respectively.
Central observers appointed
The Congress on Sunday appointed three central observers, including senior leader Sushil Kumar Shinde, ahead of its crucial legislature party meeting in Karnataka to elect the new chief minister, amid hectic lobbying for the top post. Besides Shinde, a former chief minister of Maharashtra, the other observers are party general secretary Jitendra Singh and former AICC general secretary Deepak Babaria.
AICC general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said the central observers would oversee the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting.
The newly elected Congress MLAs in Karnataka are meeting in Bengaluru at 5.30 pm to discuss government formation.
Both the eight-time MLA Shivakumar and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah have made no secret of their ambition to become CM and had been involved in a game of political one upmanship in the past.
The Congress had entered the campaign phase with the challenge of keeping at bay the factionalism, especially between the camps of Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, who had been openly rooting for their leaders, but the party put a united front and ensured that no rift came out in open and derail its prospects, under the mentorship of AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Now the task at hand for the AICC leadership is to complete the process of electing the legislature party leader by taking all factions together.
While the 60-year-old Shivakumar is considered to be "troubleshooter" for the Congress party, Siddaramaiah has a pan-Karnataka appeal.
Shivakumar versus Siddaramaiah
If Siddaramaiah, who joined Congress after being expelled from JD(S), gets elected as the CLP leader, this will be his second stint as the Chief Minister from the party after having occupied the coveted post for five years between 2013-18. Shivakumar had served as Minister in Siddaramaiah's cabinet.
In fact in this election, the Congress' has significantly improved its electoral performance in the Vokkaliga dominated Old Mysuru region (south Karnataka) and that credit largely goes to Shivakumar.
Also, there have been instances in the party that whoever has successfully led as KPCC President in election, have been the natural choice to be the CM, like in the case of Krishna and Veerendra Patil.
Siddaramaiah, who has seniority on his side, is known for able administrative skills, and has the experience of having run a successful tenure as the Chief Minister. He also enjoys the distinction of having presented 13 budgets for the state.
Being a mass leader, he has considerable clout among the AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits). Seventy-five-year-old Siddaramaiah who has already announced that this was his last election, has been maintaining that the Chief Minister will be elected by the newly elected MLAs in consultation with the party high command.
There are also other contenders for the post like former Deputy Chief Minister and ex KPCC President G Parameshwara and veteran leader and seven-time MP K H Muniyappa-- both Dalits, and M B Patil-- a Lingayat.
(With inputs from PTI)
