Bangalore, May 6, 2013:
With Assembly elections over and projections of a Congress government in the offing, an intense debate has broken out – logically so. Who will be the next Chief Minister?
Congress sources say the race has now narrowed down to between Union Labour and Employment Minister M Mallikarjuna Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly Siddaramaiah.
While the Congress high-command has favoured Kharge, a veteran Congress leader, the central leadership certainly cannot afford to ignore Siddaramaiah’s claim to the coveted post.
In this background, the party offering an equal tenure – two-and-half-years each – to Kharge and Siddarmaiah is not ruled out.
Making Kharge Chief Minister will send a strong message nationally that the Congress made a member of Scheduled Castes Chief Minister, a move that it hopes to encash in the Lok Sabha elections, due next year.
Siddaramaiah is from Kuruba community, which is believed to have solidly backed the Congress in the just-concluded elections, hoping to seen their own man in the “gaddi”.
Meanwhile, all eyes are on counting on May eight.
How many seats will the fledgling Karnataka Janatha Paksha of former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa get? Is it S Suresh Kumar or Shobha Karandlaje in Rajajinagar? Will former BJP state president K S Eshwarappa lose in Shimoga? What will be the political strategy of Yeddyurappa going forward? Will BSR Congress of B Sriramulu will hold on to its own or merge with another party?
These are some of the questions top-most in the minds of people who follow politics closely.
