Siddaramaiah to be Karnataka CM, Shivakumar his deputy

BENGALURU: A smiling Siddaramaiah who is at AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal’s residence in Delhi will head to the AICC office and meet with the Congress leaders and will head back to Bangalore a little past lunch. He is expected to arrive in Bangalore to a specially prepared welcome at the HAL Airport with banners and cutouts which have been meticulously prepared since last night.

The Congress CLP meeting is scheduled to be held at 7 pm where his leadership which has been confirmed by the central leadership will now receive the necessary stamp of approval from the legislators. Sources said Siddaramaiah’s leadership will be proposed by DK Shivakumar and the others will endorse it as a mark of unity.

Both leaders Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar will arrive together by special flight at the HAL airport and will be welcomed by the party leaders.

In the power-sharing, Siddaramaiah will become CM for the first two and half years and DK Shivakumar will hold the office for the next two and half years. As far as the ministries are concerned DK Shivakumar will get a lion’s share of ministries, he will receive 20 ministries while Siddaramaiah and his team will receive only 13 out of a 34-member cabinet.

It may be recalled that the All India Congress Committee on May 18, ending hours of deadlock selected Siddaramaiah as the 34th Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Officials at the PCC office were busy dialing the numbers of the Congress MLAs inviting them for the CLP that has been called at 7 pm this evening.

Meanwhile, preparations are also being carried out for the swearing-in of the CM and DCM that will happen on Saturday afternoon at the Kanteerava Stadium and invitations are going out .

Speaking about the breakthrough sources said the leaders were locked in a series of meetings with the central leadership to break the deadlock. Sources said each one of the issues raised regarding the executive leadership were ironed out threadbare to ensure there is no bitterness or residual ill feeling. The entire Congress central leadership stepped in to work a way out of the problem–Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, AICC president, Mallikarjun Kharge, General Secretary K C Venugopal, state incharge general secretary Randeep Surjewala.