Speaking to news agency ANI, Shivakumar said that he would not resort to “backstabbing” or “blackmail” regardless of what the Congress’ top leadership decides on the matter. Meanwhile, the state’s newly-elected MLAs arrived at party President Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence this afternoon to discuss government formation in the state.
While Siddaramaiah has emerged as the frontrunner, with majority of the newly elected MLAs learnt to have named him as their choice, Shivakumar played hardball. The Congress leader is slated to visit New Delhi today, after cancelling his trip on Monday, citing a stomach infection. His brother D K Suresh met with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in the capital on his behalf yesterday.
Congress' CM decision likely today; DK Shivakumar leaves for New Delhi. Follow this space for LIVE updates on Karnataka Government Formation
As the BJP begins taking stock of its significant electoral loss in Karnataka and what led to it, one aspect that will come under critical review is the state leadership and its inputs that shaped the party’s campaign.
The BJP is waiting for its leaders who are still in their constituencies to return, before undertaking a formal analysis of the results. A party leader said: “The state as well as central leaders involved in electioneering will meet for a detailed analysis. We will see where we have lost badly, where the party has gone wrong and what steps to take to plug the loopholes in our strategy, ahead of the general election.”
Key to state-level campaign planning was general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, with most of the state BJP leaders seen as his confidants. These include BJP Karnataka president Nalin Kateel, national general secretary C T Ravi and prominent South Bengaluru MP Tejasvi Surya. Read m
While the Congress' top leadership deliberates over the all-important Chief Ministerial post in Karnataka, trouble is brewing for the Grand Old Party in Karnataka.
Flanked by two ministers and 13 other MLAs in his biggest show of strength in recent months, Congress leader Sachin Pilot Monday gave a 15-day ultimatum to his own party’s government in Rajasthan to act on his three demands on corruption or face a state-wide agitation. Pushing the party further to the edge in the state where Assembly elections are due in December, Pilot and two ministers, Hemaram Choudhary and Rajendra Gudha, also targeted Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Concluding his five-day Ajmer-Jaipur Jan Sangharsh Yatra on Monday with a rally in the capital city’s outskirts, Pilot demanded that the corruption-ridden Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) be dissolved, reconstituted and backed by a new law.
He also sought compensation for “lakhs of students” who have suffered economically due to paper leaks, and a high-level inquiry into corruption cases under the earlier Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government
The newly-elected Karnataka Congress MLAs have arrived at Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's residence for a discussion on government formation in the Southern state, news agency ANI reported. We are still awaiting the arrival of state Congress President DK Shivakumar, who is a front runner for the CM role.
Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi took a jibe at the media for its coverage of the Congress' big Karnataka decision. "Cute to see the media’s urgency to declare CM Karnataka. Their silence when BJP took 9 days to decide Assam CM, silence on the delay by illegitimate Maharashtra government in declaring its cabinet, same in Puducherry, makes one see their current outrage for Karnataka as nothing but desperate, agenda driven and pathetic," the Shiv Sena leader wrote.
As the Congress swept to power in Karnataka bagging 135 seats in the elections to the 224-member Assembly, the party circles credited their “4 S cards” for ensuring its best-ever performance in the state since 1989.
While two of these “4 S’s” include top state Congress leaders, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar and ex-chief minister Siddaramaiah, the third one is the poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu.
The fourth “S” in this key group of architects of the party’s victory is the 44-year-old ex-IAS officer Sasikanth Senthil, who headed the Congress’s war room in Bengaluru and played a key role in formulating the narrative against the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government over corruption through various ways.
Kharge, Sonia Gandhi will take a call today,' says Shivakumar's brother
Ahead of Karnataka Congress President D K Shivakumar's meeting with the Congress High Command, his brother, D K Suresh, said that the party's top leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi will announce their decision regarding the state's next Chief Minister today.
This comes a day after Suresh met with the party's top leadership on behalf of his brother. Stay tuned for more
In the first signal of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s softening of stand towards the Congress, she said here on Monday that her party was “ready to support the Congress where it is strong”.
Mamata’s statement comes two days after the Congress won the Karnataka Assembly elections decisively. In her message after the results, the West Bengal Chief Minister had avoided mentioning the Congress altogether.Tap to read.