Karnataka CM / How did DK Shivakumar agree to the post of Deputy CM, how did Karnataka's 'drama' end? read full story

Karnataka CM: If senior leader of Karnataka Congress Siddaramaiah becomes the Chief Minister once again, then DK Shivakumar, who rescues the party from time to time, will have to be satisfied with the post of Deputy CM. While there is celebration in the Siddaramaiah camp in Bengaluru after the decision of the Congress high command, Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar had to surrender before the high command after a four-day tug-of-war. The decision of the Karnataka CM was very difficult for the Congress high command. After all, how did the tales of Karnataka's chair keep moving forward amidst the equation changing moment after result and Siddaramaiah's experience overshadowed the hard work of DK Shivakumar?

Where did DK Shivkumar fall behind in political exercise?

13 May 2023 – The result of the Karnataka assembly elections came.

Congress got 135, BJP 66 and JDS 19 seats in the Karnataka assembly elections, others got 4 seats.

After the overwhelming majority, the discussion about the CM face started in the Congress. The rounds of meetings, brainstorming and meetings continued.

14 May 2023 Congress Legislature Party meeting in Bengaluru.

How did Siddaramaiah's name get stamped?

The Congress Legislature Party meeting was held in Bengaluru on the next day of the result i.e. on Sunday. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had appointed former Maharashtra CM Sushil Kumar Shinde, Congress General Secretary Jitendra Singh and former General Secretary Deepak Babaria as observers for the meeting. Along with him, Karnataka Congress in-charge Randeep Surjewala was also there. The observers polled each MLA separately. Observers talked for 4-5 hours at Hotel Shangri-La in Bengaluru to know the opinion of the MLAs on the Chief Minister, while DK Shivakumar cut the cake in the Legislature Party meeting, everything was going well till then.

In the meeting of MLAs on Sunday, Siddaramaiah proposed that Kharge should elect the Chief Minister. Other legislators, including DK, also supported the motion while supporters of DK and Siddaramaiah raised slogans outside the hotel during the Legislature Party meeting. Here, after the demand of the MLAs, party leader Randeep Surjewala said that the process will be taken forward in collaboration with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal, after which both the contenders for the post of CM DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah were called to Delhi on Monday. Rahul Gandhi met the observers and election in-charge Randeep Surjewala who returned from Karnataka on Monday. According to sources, Rahul told him that the decision of the Chief Minister should be taken only according to the opinion of the MLAs.

Not 2, 4 contenders for the post of CM

When the round of meetings started in Delhi on Monday, not only Shivkumar and Siddaramaiah of Karnataka Congress, MB Patil and G Parameshwara also came forward in the race for CM. Here, according to the number of different MLAs and population in Delhi, churning started on the formula to form the government in Karnataka.

On Tuesday, it was almost decided that Siddaramaiah, who comes from the Kuruba community, could be made the CM. There can be three deputy CMs under him. All three will be from different communities. These include DK Shivakumar from the Vokkaliga community, MB Patil from the Lingayat community and Satish Jarkiholi from the Nayak/Valmiki community. In Karnataka, the population of these three castes – Kuruba 7%, Lingayat 16%, Vokkaliga 11%, SC/ST is around 27%, that means Congress wanted to achieve 61% of the population with this decision. Obviously, through this equation, the Congress was trying to win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But DK Shivkumar had given a clear message to the high command, he was not ready for anything less than the CM.

Equations kept changing every moment on Wednesday

According to sources associated with the Congress, the high command had agreed to make Siddaramaiah the CM for three years and DK Shivakumar for the last two years in the government's five-year tenure. However, sources reveal that in the Legislature Party meeting, DK Shivakumar disagreed with the two CM formula. Not only this, Shivakumar was not ready to accept anything below the post of CM, after which the supporters of Congress Karnataka Chief DK Shivakumar and senior leader Siddaramaiah started postering. Supporters pasted posters everywhere in Bengaluru to make Siddaramaiah and DK the CM, while in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi and Kharge held a marathon meeting with both the leaders for hours and after a day's exercise late on Wednesday night, the party leader Took a tough decision on the CM of Karnataka and Siddaramaiah, coming from the Kuruba community, once again emerged as the high command's choice for the CM of Karnataka.

Please tell that Rahul Gandhi had asked the observers to talk to all the MLAs one-to-one. If sources are to be believed, more than 80 of these MLAs had voted in favor of Siddaramaiah, apparently the high command has taken this decision on the basis of that input.