K'taka CM suspense ends: Siddaramaiah to be next CM with DKS as DyCM

Though an official announcement is still awaited, the National Herald has learnt from reliable sources in the Indian National Congress that veteran leader Siddaramaiah will be the next Karnataka chief minister and its state unit chief D.K. Shivakumar as his deputy.

After several rounds of meetings over three days between Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior party leaders, the party has finally come to the conclusion that Opposition leader of the outgoing Assembly Siddaramaiah will be the next new chief minister, with Shivakumar as the state's deputy chief minister.

The announcement will be made on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting in Bengaluru. The party source added that the swearing-in ceremony will take place on May 20 afternoon in Bengaluru.

The Congress was facing a tough choice as both veteran leaders—Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar—were contenders for the top post in the state.

On Monday, the three central observers had submitted to Kharge their reports on the CLP meeting with a voting by secret ballot.

Kharge, 81, had been in several rounds of discussions with former party chief Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary K.C. Venugopal and Karnataka unit in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala, as well as meeting the two contenders themselves, since Monday afternoon.

Only by very late Wednesday evening or very early Thursday morning was the decision finalised, in favour of Siddaramaiah.

The Congress had won 135 out of 224 seats in the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly polls, whereas the ruling BJP was reduced to 66 and the JD-S to 19 seats.