Karnataka Politics: Siddaramaiah set to become Karnataka CM, Shivakumar deputy

The suspense over the formation of a new government in Karnataka seems to be ending with various media reports cited sources confirming that Siddaramaiah will be the next chief minister of Karnataka with DK Shivakumar as his deputy. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge worked till late night Wednesday to break the political deadlock over the next CM in Karnataka and arrived at a consensus for government formation. The party has called a Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting in Bengaluru on Thursday at 7 pm. Central Observers from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) have been asked to reach Bengaluru to conduct the CLP Meeting. Earlier on Wednesday, Congress’ Karnataka-in-charge Randeep Surjewala said that a decision on the next Karnataka chief minister will be announced today or tomorrow and a new cabinet will be in place within 72 hours. Meanwhile, a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting has been called by the party’s state unit chief D K Shivakumar here on Thursday evening. The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief has written to all the legislators, asking them to attend the meeting of newly-elected MLAs, MLCs and MPs at the Indira Gandhi Bhavan on Queen’s Road here at 7 pm. Hectic parleys were held on Wednesday to break the deadlock in deciding on the Congress’s chief ministerial pick in Karnataka, with both the hopefuls – Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar – presenting their cases before the top brass even as the party asserted that an outcome is likely within a day or two. After the multiple rounds of discussions, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge for Karnataka Randeep Surjewala said a decision on the new cabinet will be in place in the next 48-72 hours. In the May 10 elections to the 224-member Assembly, the Congress scored an emphatic victory by bagging 135 seats, while the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the former prime minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19 seats respectively. With inputs from agencies. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.