The Congress Legislature Party decides to leave the selection of the new Karnataka CM party president Kharge…reports Asian Lite News
The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has unanimously decided to leave the selection of the new Karnataka Chief Minister to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge.
“The Congress Legislature Party unanimously resolves that AICC President is hereby authorised to appoint the new leader of the Congress Legislature Party,” the resolution stated. The CLP meeting is currently underway at Shangri-la Hotel in Bengaluru.
Ahead of the CLP meeting today, a huge number of supporters gathered outside the residence of Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar in Bengaluru on Sunday and raised slogans of ‘We want DK Shivakumar as CM’.
Congress, which registered an emphatic victory defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka on Saturday, now faces the challenge of deciding the chief minister amid speculations of Siddaramaiah being the front-runner followed by state party president DK Shivakumar.
Kharge on Sunday appointed three observers in Karnataka including former Maharashtra chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and party leaders Jitendra Singh and Deepak Babaria for the election of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader in the state.
Taking to his social media handle, KC Venugopal said, “Congress President has deputed Sushil Kumar Shinde (Former Chief Minister, Maharashtra), Jitendra Singh (AICC GS) and Deepak Babaria (former AICC GS) as observers for the election of the Congress Legislative party (CLP) Leader of Karnataka.”
The observers will be present in the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting and will submit the report to the party’s high command.
Earlier on Saturday, Venugopal referred to the Congress party’s big win in the Karnataka Assembly elections as ‘one of the milestones ahead of the 2024 elections.
Speaking about the win, KC Venugopal said, “This is one of the milestones of the 2024 elections.”
Venugopal further said that Congress stood for the poor in the state and thus won the mandate of the people.
“The type of divisive politics that BJP does, is not going to be successful every time. This is a clear message. We stood for the poor people of Karnataka. They stood for the rich. Finally, the poor won this election. This is the clear narrative of this election”, he said.
According to the Election Commission of India, Congress won 135 seats pushing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power in the only southern state it ruled and boosting its own prospects for the electoral battles ahead. BJP managed to win 66 seats.
Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) bagged 19 seats. Independents have won two seats while Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha won one seat each.
‘CM to be named soon’
Congress leader and All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Karnataka, Randeep Singh Surjewala, on Sunday late night said that party chief Mallikarjun Kharge will not take long and announce the name of next chief minister of Karnataka soon.
Speaking to reporters after a late-night meeting of newly elected Congress MLAs in Karnataka’s Bengaluru, Surjewala said, “Party leadership will take a decision. I can’t replace my judgement with Kharge Sahab’s judgement. He is our senior, and as you all know him. He is the son of the soil of Karnataka, and I’m sure he will not take very long.” “The winning party will be in the first cabinet when we will implement our first five guarantees,” he said while responding to a query on plans for the oath-taking ceremony after the decision on the new CM of Karnataka.
The meeting was convened after Congress Legislature Party (CLP) unanimously passed a resolution authorising party president Mallikarjun Kharge to pick the name of the Karnataka Chief Minister. “The Congress Legislature Party unanimously resolves that AICC President is hereby authorised to appoint the new leader of the Congress Legislature Party,” the resolution stated.
The meeting which started late on Sunday night at a hotel in Bengaluru, continued till 1.30 am. It was attended by all 135 newly elected MLAs.
Former Maharashtra chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and party leaders Jitendra Singh and Deepak Babaria were present in the meeting as observers. Party leaders like Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and others also attended the meeting.
“Entire process of meeting individual legislators of Congress party has been completed with great bohemia. The observers met all the MLAs separately and recorded their views and now they will submit a report to the Congress leadership and after that, we will announce the next leader of the Congress Legislature Party,” AICC in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala further told reporters.
When asked if there were any gifts being planned for Siddaramaiah or DK Shivakumar on the latter’s birthday, Surjewala said, “I am not a party to those discussions as General Secretary I’m a simple worker to Congress who stood out with all my legislatures. We were sitting together and planning the future of Karnataka which is more important to us. We also celebrated DK Shivakumar’s birthday together.” (ANI)