Poster referring to Siddaramaiah as ’next K’taka CM’ put up outside his B’luru residence

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, May 14, 2023: Supporters of senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah put up a poster outside Siddaramaiah’s residence in Bengaluru, referring to him as "the next CM of Karnataka."

DK Shivakumar and former Chief Minister and leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah have both been vocal about their aspirations for the top post, raising fears of an unpleasant stand-off within the party if the matter isn’t resolved.

The Congress has this evening called a meeting of its MLAs to deliberate on the tricky issue of who gets the top job after their thumping victory in the Karnataka assembly elections yesterday. In the meeting, which Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar said is scheduled for 6 pm at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bengaluru, the Congress Legislative Party is expected to pass a resolution leaving it to the Congress national president to decide the chief minister pick.

Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, who held a joining press conference with the two top state party leaders last evening dedicating the victory to the people of the state and promising to implement welfare schemes promised in the party manifesto, is headed back to Delhi this afternoon.

The scale of Congress victory is a record in terms of both seats and vote share in over 30 years. The party has won 137 seats -- 57 more than in 2018 -- with a vote share of 42.9 per cent. The closest the Congress came to this score was in 1999 when it won 132 seats and had a vote share of 40.84 per cent.

In 1989, it won 178 seats with a vote share of 43.76 per cent.