A Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting will be held at 6 pm today to elect the new chief minister of Karnataka, with former CM Siddaramaiah and KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar being the strong claimants and front-runners for the coveted post.
The party has appointed three central observers—senior leader Sushil Kumar Shinde, party general secretary Jitendra Singh and former AICC general secretary Deepak Babaria—to oversee the CLP meeting.
"Hon'ble Congress President has deputed Shri.Sushilkumar Shinde (Former Chief Minister, Maharashtra), Shri.Jitendra Singh (AICC GS) and Shri.Deepak Babaria (former AICC GS) as observers for the election of the CLP Leader of Karnataka," AICC general secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal tweeted.
Siddaramaiah (75) and Shivakumar (60) have already held meetings with MLAs loyal to them even as a poster war has erupted in Bengaluru.
Earlier in the day, Shivakumar hinted that he is in the chief ministerial race saying he took everyone along and never sought anything for himself. He, however, brushed aside speculations about differences between him and Siddaramaiah.
"I had not done anything wrong for myself. Whatever I did was for the party. All my sufferings were for the party," he said.
"Everyone was saying that there are differences between me and Siddaramaiah but let me tell you not a single iota of difference is there. I did not give anyone a chance. I just kept myself grounded and walked my path," Shivakumar added.
There are speculations that the party may go for a vote to elect the new chief minister as it did in Himachal Pradesh. All MLAs will reportedly be asked to vote for their choice of the chief minister. The other possibility is to bring about a power-sharing pact wherein both will get to be the leader for a certain period.
In the results declared on Saturday, the Congress won 135 seats while the BJP ended up with 65. The JD(S), the third player in the contest, won 19 seats in the 224-member assembly, while two seats were won by Independents, two were won by regional parties.
