Congress leader Siddaramaiah met Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot and staked claim to form government in Karnataka on Thursday night shortly after he was elected the Legislative Party leader at a crucial meeting of the party MLAs in Bengaluru. KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar and other Congress leaders accompanied him to the Raj Bhavan.
The governor invited Siddaramaiah to form government.
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—former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and AICC general secretary Jitendra Singh.
The four-day impasse on the chief minister post ended on Thursday after Shivakumar, who was lobbying hard for the top post, settled for the deputy chief minister's chair following prolonged parleys involving the party central leadership and the intervention of Sonia Gandhi.
"We have decided on Siddaramiah as the chief minister of Karnataka. D.K. Shivakumar will be the only deputy chief minister," General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal said, adding that the swearing-in will take place at 12.30 pm on Saturday.
There were reports that the central leadership had proposed a power-sharing formula as per which Siddaramaiah will remain as the chief minister for the first two and a half years and then hand over the post to Shivakumar. Venugopal, however, dismissed any such proposal and said the only formula is to share the power with the people of Karnataka.
"Ours is a democratic party, we believe in consensus and not in dictatorship," he said.
However, quoting sources, NDTV reported that there is a rough understanding of a 50:50 power sharing, under which Shivakumar can succeed Siddaramaiah in the top post after two and a half years, but this will hinge on the party's performance in the state in next year's Lok Sabha elections. Karnataka has 28 Lok Sabha seats.
PTI, quoting sources, reported that around 20 ministers will also be sworn in along with the chief minister and deputy chief minister, including some from the state legislative council, on Saturday.
Senior leaders including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and chief ministers of the Congress ruled states are expected to attend the oath taking ceremony.
The Congress has also invited like-minded parties and their leaders, including Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Telangana CM Chandrashekhar Rao, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik to the swearing in.
Invitation has also been extended to several other opposition leaders including Sitaram Yechuri, Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah and Akhilesh Yadav.
Congress stormed to power in the state in the May 10 elections after winning 135 seats. The BJP was reduced to 66 seats while the JD(S) could bag just 19 seats.
