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It's official Siddaramaiah to be Karnataka's Next CM
Itâs official Siddaramaiah to be Karnatakaâs Next CM
Siddaramaiah, who led the Congress partyâs battle against the BJP governmentâs corruption in Karnataka, was friday chosen to be the new Chief Minister in a hotly-contested race, edging out party veteran and Union Labour Minister M Mallikarjuna Kharge.
Two days after Congress made a spectacular comeback with an absolute majority in the elections, the 64-year-old backward class leader was chosen at a meeting of the newly-elected MLAs in the presence of four AICC observers headed by Defence Minister A K Antony.
Siddaramaiah, who had joined Congress from JD(S) six years and was a Deputy Chief Minister under Dharam Singh, was projected by the party as an âunanmimous choiceâ but there were enough indications that the choice was not easy. The legislators were asked to give their choice in writing, party sources said.
With the fight getting tougher between the two aspirants, the AICC team first chose to elicit individual opinion.
Siddaramaiah moved a resolution requesting that the choice of CLP leader be left to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
However, the team â apparently to give out a message that it has followed due deligence on the exercise and that the central leadership is not thrusting its choice â asked the legislators to express their choice, in a secret ballot.
Thereafter, Antony announced in the CLP meeting the election of Siddaramaiah, a backward classes leader who hailed from the Kuruba community, the third largest caste which is believed to have solidly backed the party in the May five Assembly elections.
Kharge, who was a serious contender, was seen leaving the KPCC office soon before the announcement of Siddaramaiahâs choice was made by Antony.
Siddaramiah was the chief of the Congress Legislature Party in the outgoing Assembly.
KPCC President G Parameshwara, who suffered shock defeat in the elections that eliminated him from the race for Chief Minister post, later drove to Raj Bhavan along with Congress General Secretary in charge of the State Madhusudan Mistri and conveyed to the Governor H R Bhardwaj the CLP decision and requested him to invite Siddaramaiah to form the Government.
Parameshwara said only Siddaramaiah would be sworn in initially, adding both of them would visit New Delhi to meet Sonia Gandhi to finalise the list of Ministers.
Later speaking to reporters, Siddarmaiah insisted that his selection was unanimous.
Asked about the âsecret ballotâ, he chose to downplay it, saying: âThe MLAs were asked to give their preference in writing, instead of orally, and it (election) was done in a democratic and transparent wayâ.
âAfter eliciting the opinion of legislators, the issue was discussed with Sonia Gandhi. Subsequently, Antony announced that as per her directive, I have been elected CLP leaderâ, he said.
