Siddaramaiah outpaces Shivakumar as the likely CM of Karnataka: Sources

Siddaramaiah was the Leader of Opposition in the outgoing assembly

Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who is considered to have played a key role in the party's dominating victory in Karnataka assembly elections, is likely to be appointed as the state's next chief minister, sources told CNN-News18 on May 15.

Siddaramaiah, who reportedly enjoys the support of the bulk of the 135 MLA-elects of the Congress, reached New Delhi earlier in the day. His rival in the race for the chief ministerial chair - Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar - did not leave for the national capital citing a "stomach infection".

The developments came a day after the Congress Legislative Party (CLP), in its first meeting after the election results, passed a one-line resolution authorising the party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge to take the final call on the selection of the chief minister.

Shivakumar, who has apparently slipped behind in the chief ministerial race, told reporters that he has not placed any condition before the Congess' central leadership. "There are 135 Congress MLAs. I don't have any MLAs. I have left the decision to the party high command," news agency ANI quoted him as saying.

While speaking to NDTV, Shivakumar, however, sounded cryptic as he said that one should express "gratitude" and "acknowledge" who was behind the party's landslide win.

"You should have the basic courtesy, a bit of gratitude. They should have the courtesy to acknowledge who is behind the win," the news channel quoted him as saying.

Shivakumar, 61, was appointed as the Karnataka Congress' chief in 2020, a year after the party lost power in the state with 14 of its MLAs switching to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Under his state presidency, the Congress clocked its best electoral figures in Karnataka in the last 40 years. The party grabbed a vote share of 42 percent, winning 135 out of Karnataka's 224 assembly seats. The incumbent ruling BJP was reduced to 66 constituencies, and the JD(S) to 19.

Siddaramaiah, who is also counted among the Congress's top grassroots-level leaders in the state, served as the chief minister between 2013 and 2018. In the pre and post-poll surveys, the 75-year-old had emerged as the top choice for CM among the respondents.

Nearly 40 percent of the respondents in the C-Voter exit poll said they want Siddaramaiah to return as the chief minister, whereas, only 4.2 percent said their choice was Shivakumar.