The party source said that the swearing-in ceremony will take place on May 20 in Bengaluru…reports Asian Lite News
After three days of 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 announcement will be made on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting in Bengaluru.
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.
On Monday, the three central observers had submitted the report of CLP meeting and their voting through the secret ballot with Kharge.
After several rounds of meeting senior leaders, Kharge finally on intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday finalised the name of Siddaramaiah as the next Karnataka Chief Minister.
Kharge, 81, had held discussion with former party chief Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary K.C. Venugopal and party Karnataka unit in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala, besides the two Karnataka leaders since Monday afternoon.
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.
‘Accepted decision in larger interest of party’
After suspense over the Karnataka chief minister has ended, state Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar, who has been given the post of Deputy CM, said on Thursday that he accepted the decision in the larger interest of the party.
Speaking to the media at the residence of party general secretary K.C. Venugopal, Shivakumar said, “The party high command has taken a decision.”
He also said that he has taken the decision in the larger interest of the party.
After holding back to back meetings for three consecutive days, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge ended the suspense over Karnataka Chief Minister by picking Siddaramaiah for the top post with Shivakumar as his deputy. Both the leaders were vying for the top post.
Siddaramaiah is scheduled to meet Venugopal before leaving for Bengaluru, where the CLP meeting has been called on Thursday evening to make the announcement.
Kharge to invite opposition leaders for swearing-in
Meanwhile, Mallikarjun Kharge is expected to invite opposition leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new Karnataka chief minister and deputy chief minister, according to sources.
They said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Rai Bareli MP Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other senior party leaders will attend the event The oath-taking ceremony will be held in Bengaluru on May 20.
In 2018, when Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy was sworn in as the chief minister of Karnataka coalition government, a galaxy of Opposition leaders attended the ceremony.
The ceremony was attended by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, then Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and other top leaders like the Nationalist Congress Party’s Sharad Pawar, Sharad Yadav from the Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav and Left’s Sitaram Yechury and D Raja.
In 2013 Siddaramaiah had taken oath at the same venue, the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here when he became the chief minster of the State for the first time.
The Congress is all set to name Siddaramaiah as the next chief minister of Karnataka, and a formal announcement on the same will be is made at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting this evening here in Bengaluru. According to sources while Siddharamaiah will get the CM position, the Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar will be the Deputy Chief Minister.
The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief Shivakumar has written to all the legislators, asking them to attend the meeting of newly-elected MLAs, MLCs and MPs at the Indira Gandhi Bhavan on Queen’s Road today in Bengaluru at 7 pm today.
Meanwhile, security was stepped up and banners were also put up outside Congress leader Siddaramaiah’s residence.
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