Karnataka CM News LIVE: Siddaramaiah, DKS Stake Claim to Form Govt, Oath-Taking Tomorrow; Cong's Final Call On Portfolios Soon

Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot on Thursday said that he will administer oath to Chief Minister-designate Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar to take oath on May 20.

“I am in receipt of your letter dated 18th May, 2023 staking claim to form the government.

“I invite you to take oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka and D.K. Shivakumar to take oath as Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka along with team members. The oath ceremony will take place at 12.30 p.m. on May 20, 2023 in Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru,” the Governor said in a communication to newly-elected leader of Congress Legislature Party Siddaramaiah. A copy of the letter has been sent to Shivakumar.

Congress is likely to induct at least 10-12 ministers into the cabinet at the swearing-in on Saturday, apart from Siddaramaiah who will take oath as chief minister and DK Shivakumar as his deputy, according to a report by Times of India.

When Sonia Gandhi gave up charge of the Congress party in October last year, and passed the baton to Mallikarjun Kharge, it was with a sigh of relief. But knowing the way the party works, in private Sonia knew that she would still have to be around.

The four-day-long Karnataka “crisis” has once again showcased the duo who matter, and that its Sonia and Kharge who would have to be the ‘jodi’ to guide and help the party sail through, especially with Lok Sabha elections around next year. READ MORE

“There are two reasons why the Congress is strong in Karnataka – one is its organisation and the other is that it has a mass leader in Siddaramaiah,” a senior BJP leader told News18 last month in the middle of the hectic Karnataka campaign. When we cited this anecdote to Siddaramaiah in a subsequent meeting, he just smiled and said, “For once, the BJP is right.”

Moving in the political circles in Bengaluru or the dusty villages of far-off districts of Karnataka, it was clear who the Congress’s tallest leader in the state was. Some would even chide the “Delhi journalists” for propping up other names and saying they don’t realise why Siddaramaiah gets the crowds on the ground. From leading the Bellary Padayatra from Bengaluru that put the BJP on the back foot before the 2013 assembly elections, to the Praja Dhvani Yatra now to take the Congress’s 5-point guarantee card to every door, Siddaramaiah has batted on the front foot for the chief minister’s chair. READ MORE

Those who are invited to the oath-taking ceremony include–

• Top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra
• Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel
• Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot
• Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu
• Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren
• Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin
• Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao
• West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
• Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav
• Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar
• Former chief minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray
• Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Deputy Tejashwi Yadav
• National Conference President Farooq Abdullah
• Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik

After Congress resolved the chief ministerial stalemate in Karnataka by giving veteran leader Siddaramaiah the top post and making DK Shivakumar his deputy, the latter reacted to the development saying, “There is a long way to go.”

Talking to reporters on Thursday, the 61-year-old Vokkaliga leader said, “when people have given such a big mandate, we should definitely be happy and deliver and fulfill the promises. That is our main motto and agenda.”

“Why should I be upset? There is a long way to go,” Shivakumar added, news agency ANI reported. READ MORE

The Congress may have finally resolved the power tussle between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar by handing over the Karnataka chief minister’s crown to the former, there is no denying that convincing Shivakumar was not all that simple.

It not only took efforts from Sonia Gandhi — whom DKS often refers to as his ‘mother figure’ — to ask him to back down and allow Siddaramaiah to take over until he clears all the pending IT and ED cases against him but the Karnataka Congress chief was also in constant touch with his ‘political jyotishi’ (astrologer) Vellore Shankaranarayana Dwarakanath Guruji, popularly known as Dwarakanath Guruji. READ MORE

Gearing up for May 20’s swearing-in ceremony, an elated Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was captured on camera lifting hands of Karnataka CM-designate Siddaramaiah and his to-be deputy DK Shivakumar.

While grand old party leader Randeep Surjewala captioned the photo “The winning team! Karnataka”, the picture was shared on multiple handles of the Congress party. READ MORE

Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar’s brother, DK Suresh on Thursday said he was not completely happy over the party’s decision to go ahead with Siddaramaiah for the chief ministerial post. Suresh, however, said DKS accepted the decision in the best interest of the state.

“I am not fully happy but we wanted to fulfil our commitment to the people of Karnataka. That is why DK Shivakumar accepted (the party’s decision),” the Congress MP said. READ MORE

Siddaramaiah may have got his wrong finger inked on polling day, but his finger is clearly on the pulse of the people of Karnataka who voted the Congress back to power in this southern state with 136 seats.

“Anybody can contest from Varuna (Siddaramaiah’s seat), but the winner will always be my brother. He is very popular. He has been a chief minister once before and administered the state well. I would be thrilled to see him at Vidhan Soudha as a chief minister again,” the Congress leader and CM-designate’s brother Siddegowda said with confidence to News18 just days before Karnataka voted. READ MORE

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter and posted a timeline of sorts mentioning the number of days BJP has taken to announce the CM name after winning elections in several states.

Mentioning UP, Assam and Uttarakhand, Jairam Ramesh wrote BJP took eight, seven and 11 days, respectively, in these states to announce the CM name, while Congress did so for Karnataka in just three days after “intensive and extensive process of consultations completely alien to the BJP.”

Eight cases filed by the CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax Department and the Karnataka Lokayukatha, and one summon by ED -– these are the nine matters that Congress Chief Ministerial aspirant DK Shivakumar faces currently that could have actd as an impediment in his pitch for the Karnataka CM chair. Top Congress sources have said that Siddaramaiah is party’s choice for the CM post and that DK Shivakumar will be his deputy. Interestingly, all these nine matters are presently pending a challenge before either the Supreme Court or the High Court with Shivakumar seeking the cases to be quashed. READ MORE

At the Karnataka Assembly elections, 14 BJP ministers including Govinda Karjol, J C Madhuswamy, B C Patil, Shankar Patil Munena Koppa, Halappa Achar, B Sriramul, Dr K Sudhakar, B C Nagesh, Murugesha Nirani, B C Patil, and M T B Nagaraj tasted defeat. V Somanna also lost from Varuna and Chamarajanagar, the two segments where he contested. Meanwhile, R Ashoka, who contested from two constituencies, was re-elected from Padmanabhanagar but lost in Kanakapura.

The Congress party has achieved its best-ever performance in Karnataka since 1999, winning a comfortable majority of 135 seats in the 224-member assembly polls held on May 10. The party has made significant gains in Old Mysuru, Mumbai Karnataka, Hyderabad Karnataka and Central Karnataka regions. Meanwhile, the BJP has managed to retain its hold only in Coastal Karnataka, and its seat tally has slumped to 65 from 104 in 2018.

DK Shivakumar told News18 that “everything is well in Congress party”. Rahul Gandhi called me and said we have to work together,” Shivakumar said after accepting the post of deputy chief minister of Karnataka.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Deputy Tejashwi Yadav will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka CM designate Siddaramaiah & his Deputy DK Shivakumar in Bengaluru on May 20.

For the swearing-in ceremony of the Karnataka Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, the state Congress has extended invitations to party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik have also been invited as guests to attend the oath-taking ceremony in Bengaluru on May 20 at 12:30 pm.

meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Thursday formally elected Siddaramaiah as its leader and Chief Minister of Karnataka, following which he met the Governor and staked his claim to form the government in the state.

Ending days of suspense, the Congress central leadership earlier on Thursday announced that Siddaramaiah would be the chief minister, while state party chief D K Shivakumar would be his only deputy in the soon-to-formed cabinet.

The meeting of newly-elected Congress MLAs, MLCs and MPs, which took place at Indira Gandhi Bhavan here, was also attended by AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and two other central observers — former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and AICC general secretary Jitendra Singh.

Several top Congress leaders from party chief Mallikarjun Kharge to former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were involved in hectic parleys with Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar which finally helped to break the logjam over the top post in Karnataka. The final decision was made late Wednesday night at Kharge’s residence and was followed up with meeting at AICC general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal’s residence over breakfast the next day.

Ever since the Karnataka Assembly results were declared on May 13, both the leaders (Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar) started garnering support of MLAs close to them while mustering support for themselves.

The supporters of both, meanwhile, started building up momentum in support of their respective leader and a poster war erupted. As the race for the top post heated up, Kharge appointed three observers — Sushilkumar Shinde, Jitendra Singh and Deepak Babaria — and the first meeting of the Congress Legislature Party was convened on May 14. Supporters of both leaders continued to raise the pitch by raising slogans in support of their leaders outside the CLP meeting venue.