Siddu to be next CM, DKShi his deputy: Sources

Siddaramaiah will be the next chief minister of Karnataka and DK Shivakumar his deputy, Congress sources said on Thursday after the party arrived at a consensus on government formation in the state following hectic parleys.

Sources said the swearing-in ceremony will be held in Bengaluru on May 20 around noon.

They said Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge along with other stakeholders held parleys past midnight to hammer out a solution between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar — the two chief ministerial aspirants.

”It has been decided by consensus that Siddaramaiah will be the next chief minister and Shivakumar will be the deputy chief minister,” a Congress source said.

 

Sources said the party leadership also decided to have around 20-25 new ministers.

A Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting has been called by Shivakumar, the party’s state unit chief, in Bengaluru on Thursday evening. The decision will be announced there.

The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief has written to all legislators, asking them to attend the meeting of the newly-elected MLAs, MLCs and MPs at the Indira Gandhi Bhavan on Queen’s Road at 7 pm.

Sources close to Shivakumar said he decided to make the ”sacrifice” and agreed to be deputy chief minister in the interest of the party.

Hectic parleys were held on Wednesday to break the deadlock in deciding on the Congress’ chief ministerial pick in Karnataka with both the hopefuls presenting their cases before the top brass even as the party asserted that an outcome is likely within a day or two.

Both Shivakumar and Siddaramiah had been camping in Delhi and held several rounds of deliberations with the party top brass. Sources said Shivakumar finally agreed to be deputy CM after holding late night parleys with Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal and AICC general secretary in-charge of state Randeep Surjewala.

Surjewala and Venugopal had met Kharge and held detailed discussions on Wednesday evening.

Siddaramaiah, 75, was Karnataka CM from 2012 to 2018. Shivakumar, 61, has been a minister in the state and is currently the Karnataka Congress chief.

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