Race for K'taka CM; Siddaramaiah leaves for Delhi to meet with AICC leaders

Amid the intense race for the Chief Ministers post involving his party colleague DK Shivkumar senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah left for Delhi on Monday to meet AICC leadersHis visit comes a day after the after the Congress newly elected legislators authorised AICC President M Mallikarjun Kharge to decide on the partys CM pickEarlier on Monday Congress Observer Sushil Kumar Shinde had said both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar would be called to Delhi for consultations if requiredThe Congress won the May 10 Assembly elections winning 135 seatsAccording to party sources the 75yearold Siddaramaiah left for the national capital by a special flight to meet senior party leadersWe observers along with Congress general secretary and incharge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala and general secretary organisation K C Venugopal will go to Delhi Shinde earlier told reporters hereOur report based on feedback received at the Congress Legislaure Party meeting is secret which we cant divulge Only our party president Mallikarjun Kharge can reveal he addedAccording to Congress sources some legislators shared their opinion on their CM preference to the central observers in person during the meeting of the CLP while the others who were hesitant to share their views facetoface were given the option of doing so in writingIt was a kind of secret ballot in which one could share their opinion choosing between Shivakumar or Siddaramaiah or any other third leader or leave it to the decision of the high command an MLAelect said on condition of anonymityAlso readBJPgovernment encouraging violence through movies to stoke communal fires Former JampK CM Mehbooba MuftiIt is said that while a section of MLAs wanted to choose their leader at the meeting by raising hands the party decided against it as it might create open divisionSiddaramaiah is learnt to have stressed on getting the opinion of all MLAs before the party high command decides on the new CLP leader who will subsequently head the government as CMKharge had deputed Maharashtra exCM Shinde AICC General Secretary Jitendra Singh and former AICC general secretary Deepak Babaria as observers for the election of the CLP leaderJitendra Singh said we will make a report and submit it to the Congress president We have talked to all the MLAs in detail till midnight Decision will be taken only after handing over the reportLeader of Opposition in the Legislative Council B K Hariprasad said that with the three central observers having taken the feedback from all MLAs the party high command will now decide on the next chief ministerObservers met and took feedback from MLAs onetoone yesterday night There was open feedback and also a secret ballot for the CMs name Now the party high command will decide who will be the CM Hariprasad saidThe CLP at its meeting on Sunday unanimously passed a resolution authorising Kharge to choose the new chief minister of the StateIn the May 10 polls to the 224member Assembly the Congress won 135 seats the BJP 66 and the JD S 19 The results were declared on May 13This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever