Siddaramaiah to be Karnataka CM; Shivakumar to be Deputy

Bengaluru: After days of regular meetings, the Congress finally ended the suspense and decided to announce party veteran leader Siddaramaiah as the next Karnataka Chief Minister and its state unit chief D K Shivakumar as his deputy.

According to party sources, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge after several round of meetings with the senior party leaders and the two Karnataka leaders finally came to a conclusion that Opposition Leader of outgoing Assembly Siddaramaiah will be the next new Chief Minister of the southern state and Shivakumar as the state’s deputy Chief Minister.

The party source said that the swearing-in ceremony will take place on May 20 afternoon in Bengaluru. The Congress was facing a major challenge as both veteran leaders, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, were vying for the top post in the state.

“More responsibility is on me now to serve Karnataka. We have to deliver”

— D K Shivakumar

Beginning this week, the three central observers had submitted the report of the CLP meeting and their voting through the secret ballot with Kharge. After several rounds of meeting senior leaders, Kharge finally finalized the name of Siddaramaiah as the next Karnataka Chief Minister.

Sources close to Shivakumar said that he had accepted the Number 2 position following an intervention by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The sources said the veteran leader had agreed to make the “sacrifice in the interest of the party”.

DK Suresh, Congress MP and Mr Shivakumar’s brother, told NDTV that they are “not happy”. “My brother wanted to be Chief Minister. We are not happy with this decision,” he said.

The Congress had won 135 out of 224 seats in the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly polls whereas the ruling BJP was reduced to 66 and the JD-S to 19 seats.


Sonia’s big role behind Shivakumar accepting No 2 spot

Karnataka Congress Chief, DK Shivakumar, last night reluctantly accepted to take up the Deputy Chief Minister’s role following former party president Sonia Gandhi’s intervention, sources claimed.

The deal was clinched after Sonia Gandhi spoke to Shivakumar, who had been firm on his demand for the Chief Minister post, late last evening to resolve the deadlock.

Sources close to Shivakumar said he decided to make the “sacrifice” and agreed to be Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka in the interest of the party.

Images courtesy of Indian Overseas Congress and Twitter

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