As Congress decides the name of the next Chief Minister after winning a landslide victory in Karnataka Assembly elections, state congress president DK Shivakumar, a potential candidate for the CM chair has declared that it was his leadership under which Congress was able to acquire 135 seats in the state.
DK Shivakumar while addressing reporters told, “It is my birthday today, I will meet my family. Afterwards, I will leave for Delhi. Under my leadership, we have 135 MLAs, all in one voice, said that the matter (to appoint CM) is to be left to the party’s high command. My aim was to deliver Karnataka and I did it.”
The Karnataka Congress chief went on to say that “Congress high command called me and Siddaramaiah to Delhi. Sonia Gandhi, Kharge had given me the post of president. 135 seats have come under my presidency. When all MLAs left our party and we lost our government, I did not lose hope. I do not want to disclose what has happened in the last 5 years.”
“I’m a single man, I believe in one thing that a single man with courage becomes a majority…When all our MLAs left the party (2019 JD(S)-Cong coalition govt), I didn’t lose my heart,” said DK Shivakumar before heading to Delhi for Karnataka CM talks.
Former CM Siddaramaiah arrived in Delhi Before DK Shivakumar
In the meantime, Siddaramaiah, the former chief minister of Karnataka, has already arrived in Delhi on Monday to meet with senior Congress leaders as the party began the selection process for the next Karnataka Chief Minister.
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) in Karnataka appointed three central observers who arrived in Delhi on Monday to deliver their report to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on the issue of naming the chief minister of the State.
The task given to the observers Sushil Kumar Shinde, Deepak Bawaria, and Bhanwar Jitendra Singh was to speak with newly elected Congress MLAs about the choice of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader in Karnataka and then to deliver their findings to the party’s high command.
On Sunday, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge appointed the three observers. “We have taken the views from all the MLAs, the meeting went on till 2 am (this morning). We have prepared a report and will submit it to the Congress president,” said Jitendra Singh.
Congress leader BK Hariprasad told that a secret ballot was used to cast votes during yesterday’s CLP meeting.
Randeep Singh Surjewala, Congress leader and the All India Congress Committee (AICC) representative for Karnataka stated earlier on Sunday night that party leader Mallikarjun Kharge would soon announce the name of the next chief minister of Karnataka.
Congress Legislature Party meeting took place on Monday
A meeting was called after the unanimous adoption of a resolution by the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) allowing party leader Mallikarjun Kharge to choose the Karnataka Chief Minister’s name. The meeting took place in a hotel in Bengaluru, and continued, till 1.30 am as it was attended by all 135 freshly elected MLAs.
Sushil Kumar Shinde, a former chief minister of Maharashtra, joined party leaders Jitendra Singh and Deepak Babaria in the meeting as observers. The meeting was also attended by party leaders Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, and others.
On Sunday, a sizable crowd of supporters gathered in front of the Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar’s home in Bengaluru and chanted, “We want DK Shivakumar as CM.”
In the May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections, the Congress party defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with a resounding victory. However, the task of choosing the next chief minister has become an uphill task due to rumors that Siddaramaiah was the front-runner, followed by state party chief DK Shivakumar.
BJP was able to capture 66 seats. JDS (Janata Dal-Secular) won 19 seats. Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha each won one seat, giving independents a total of two seats.
