In Karnataka, the Congress won with a thumping majority, but for 5 days the tussle continued from Bengaluru to Delhi over the name of the Chief Minister. Now Siddaramaiah's name has been sealed, after which preparations for the celebration have started in Bengaluru.
Bengaluru: If senior Karnataka Congress leader Siddaramaiah becomes the Chief Minister once again, then DK Shivakumar, who has been able to rescue the party from time to time, will have to be satisfied with the post of Deputy CM. While there is celebration in the Siddaramaiah camp in Bengaluru after the decision of the Congress high command, Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar had to surrender before the high command after a four-day tug-of-war. The decision of the Karnataka CM was very difficult for the Congress high command. After all, how did the tales of Karnataka's chair keep moving forward amidst the equation changing moment after result and Siddaramaiah's experience overshadowed the hard work of DK Shivakumar? Read the full news-
Where did DK Shivkumar fall behind in political exercise?
13 May 2023 – The result of the Karnataka assembly elections came.
Congress got 135, BJP 66 and JDS 19 seats in the Karnataka assembly elections, others got 4 seats.
After the overwhelming majority, the discussion about the CM face started in the Congress. The rounds of meetings, brainstorming and meetings continued.
14 May 2023 Congress Legislature Party meeting in Bengaluru.
How did Siddaramaiah's name get stamped?
The Congress Legislature Party meeting was held in Bengaluru on the next day of the result i.e. on Sunday. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had appointed former Maharashtra CM Sushil Kumar Shinde, Congress General Secretary Jitendra Singh and former General Secretary Deepak Babaria as observers for the meeting. Along with him, Karnataka Congress in-charge Randeep Surjewala was also there. The observers polled each MLA separately. Observers talked for 4-5 hours at Hotel Shangri-La in Bengaluru to know the opinion of the MLAs on the Chief Minister, while DK Shivakumar cut the cake in the Legislature Party meeting, everything was going well till then.
The round of meetings continued till late Wednesday night.
In the meeting of MLAs on Sunday, Siddaramaiah proposed that Kharge should elect the Chief Minister. Other legislators, including DK, also supported the motion while supporters of DK and Siddaramaiah raised slogans outside the hotel during the Legislature Party meeting. Here, after the demand of the MLAs, party leader Randeep Surjewala said that the process will be taken forward in collaboration with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal, after which both the contenders for the post of CM DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah were called to Delhi on Monday. Rahul Gandhi met the observers and election in-charge Randeep Surjewala who returned from Karnataka on Monday. According to sources, Rahul told him that the decision of the Chief Minister should be taken only according to the opinion of the MLAs.
Not 2, 4 contenders for the post of CM
When the round of meetings started in Delhi on Monday, not only Shivkumar and Siddaramaiah of Karnataka Congress, MB Patil and G Parameshwara also came forward in the race for CM. Here, according to the number of different MLAs and population in Delhi, churning started on the formula to form the government in Karnataka.
On Tuesday, it was almost decided that Siddaramaiah, who comes from the Kuruba community, could be made the CM. There can be three deputy CMs under him. All three will be from different communities. These include DK Shivakumar from the Vokkaliga community, MB Patil from the Lingayat community and Satish Jarkiholi from the Nayak/Valmiki community. In Karnataka, the population of these three castes – Kuruba 7%, Lingayat 16%, Vokkaliga 11%, SC/ST is around 27%, that means Congress wanted to achieve 61% of the population with this decision. Obviously, through this equation, the Congress was trying to win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But DK Shivkumar had given a clear message to the high command, he was not ready for anything less than the CM.
