Karnataka: Siddaramaiah elected as Congress Legislative Party leader

BENGALURU: Siddaramaiah on Thursday was elected unanimously as the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader in Karnataka. Congress leaders RV Deshpande, HK Patil, MB Patil and Lakshmi Hebbalkar proposed Siddaramaiah's name.

Shivakumar moves a resolution to elect Siddaramaiah as a new CLP leader. All members endorsed it unanimously. The CLP meeting was held at the party office in Bengaluru after Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar returned from the national capital after days of deliberation for the chief ministerial face. Congress officially announced the name of the chief ministerial face today.

Siddaramaiah was announced as the chief minister and DK Shivakumar was announced as his deputy. Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar, who were camping in the national capital for days after winning the Karnataka Assembly polls, returned to Bengaluru today.

A Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting was held in Bengaluru today. After days of deliberation, Congress on Thursday announced that party leader Siddaramaiah will be the next Karnataka Chief Minister and DK Shivakumar will be Deputy Chief Minister.

Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal made the announcement at the party headquarters in the national capital. He said Shivakumar will continue as state Congress chief till the Lok Sabha polls. He will be the only Deputy chief minister. "DK Shivakumar will continue as the PCC president till the end of parliamentary elections. CM, Deputy CM and a group of ministers will be sworn in on May 20," Venugopal said.

The decision on the next Karnataka Chief Minister came following days of hectic parleys in Delhi after the newly-elected MLAs authorized party chief Mallikarjun Kharge to choose their leader.

Both Siddaramaiah, a former Chief Minister, and Shivakumar staked their claims to be chief minister. The party leadership held a series of meetings over the past several days and numerous formulas were mooted before a decision was arrived.

Congress bagged 135 seats in the May 10 elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly ousting the ruling BJP, which got 66 seats while the Janata Dal (Secular) secured 19 seats.