Siddaramaiah Will Be Karnataka CM, Rahul Convinced Shivakumar About Need For Unity

NEW DELHI, (IANS) – Congress on May 18 declared veteran party leader Siddaramaiah as the Chief Minister of Karnataka and state unit chief D.K Shivakumar his only deputy after three days of consultations.

Addressing a press conference here at the party headquarters here, General Secretary (Organization) K.C. Venugopal said, “Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had serious consultation with senior leaders and one-to-one discussion with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar and we all were part of the discussion, and he took views of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. Finally, Kharge took a decision on the Karnataka CM issue.”

Venugopal said, “We believe in consensus and not dictatorship. For the last three days, we have been working for consensus and there has been a group of senior leaders.” Everyone has their own wish and desire to become the CM, which is nothing wrong, he said.

Venugopal also said that the party will be sending invitations to all the opposition leaders for the swearing-in ceremony.

Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar, who was announced as the next Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka said that former party chief Rahul Gandhi called him.

He made the remarks after his name was announced as the only Dy CM of Karnataka by the party leadership. Shivakumar said, “Everything is well and will be well and it is going to be well.”

When asked if he is happy with the decision, the Kanakpura MLA said, “We have made one line resolution and submitted it to the party leadership. Ultimately Rahul Gandhi called me and said, “We all have to work together.”

The Congress won 135 out of 224 seats in the state assembly polls where the ruling BJP was reduced to 66 while the JD-S could grab win only 19 seats in the southern state.