Siddaramaiah formally elected leader of Congress Legislature Party in Karnataka

DK Shivakumar (Left) and Siddaramaiah (Right)

A meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Thursday formally elected Siddaramaiah as its leader and Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Ending days of suspense, the Congress central leadership earlier on Thursday announced that Siddaramaiah would be the chief minister, while state party chief D K Shivakumar would be his only deputy in the soon-to-formed cabinet.

The meeting of newly-elected Congress MLAs, MLCs and MPs, which took place at Indira Gandhi Bhavan here was also attended by AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and two other central observers, namely former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and AICC general secretary Jitendra Singh.

According to Surjewala, Shivakumar moved a resolution to elect Siddaramaiah as the new leader of the Congress Legislature Party in Karnataka. All the members of CLP endorsed it unanimously.

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, who were in a tight race for the top post, will take oath on May 20 at 12.30 PM along with a group of ministers-designate.

The CLP had earlier met on May 14, a day after the announcement of the poll results, during which a one-line resolution was passed authorising AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge to decide on the new Chief Minister.

The three central observers who had come that day had also gathered opinions of the MLAs, which they shared with Kharge.

In the May 10 elections to the 224-member Assembly, the Congress scored an emphatic victory by bagging 135 seats, while the ruling BJP and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19 seats respectively.