The suspense over the name of Karnataka’s CM continued for the fourth day amidst a series of meetings in the national capital.State unit chief D.K.Shivakumar and former CM, Kharge Siddaramaiah are the frontrunners for the post.Insiders claim that after the observers — Sushil Kumar Shinde, Jitendra Singh and Deepak Babaria — submitted their report, it was clear that the majority of the MLAs preferred Siddaramaiah for the top post.
As the hectic parleys continued throughout the day, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge met party leader Rahul Gandhi at the former’s residence to discuss the government’s formation.
Sources say the formula being worked on is that Mr Siddaramaiah becomes the chief minister and Mr Shivakumar the deputy CM and there will be only one deputy chief minister.Mr Shivakumar will also retain the post of state unit chief.
The proposal of a rotational chief minister has been rejected after seeing its effects in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
The Congress president has met all the stakeholders in Karnataka.
He has also sought suggestions from senior party functionaries.Now he is expected to consult former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Mr Gandhi before a final decision is made.
The decision will most likely be announced in Bengaluru itself.Another round of meetings with stakeholders is expected soon.
The party is keen to have the swearing-in done by Thursday.
