Siddaramaiah is Karnataka CM

May 11, 2013

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Bengaluru: Brushing aside the ‘outsider’ tag which had threatened to wreck his chances of becoming Chief Minister, senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Monday realised his long cherished dream with the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) choosing him as the CLP leader.
Sixty-four-year-old Siddaramaiah, a lawyer-turned-politician, will become the 28th Chief Minister of Karnataka. He had joined the Congress just seven years ago after being unceremoniously forced out of the JD(S) by the Deve Gowda clan.
Soon after his selection as CLP leader, Siddaramaiah met Governor H.R. Bhardwaj who formally invited him to form the new government.
The selection of the CLP leader turned out to be a non-affair with the party firmly throwing its weight behind Siddaramaiah.
Despite eliciting the written opinion of legislators, the party in a tactical move, decided not to disclose the votes polled by leaders, including Siddaramaiah and Union labour minister Mallikarjun Kharge, the frontrunners for the post to ‘avoid bad blood.’
Ending a six-hour long marathon meeting, Union defence minister A.K. Antony who led a four member central team to oversee the selection process, told legislators that after consultations with AICC president Sonia Gandhi, Siddaramaiah had been chosen unanimously as the new CLP leader.
When the meeting started, Siddaramaiah suggested a single-line resolution authorising AICC president Sonia Gandhi to select the new CLP leader which was seconded by senior leaders like H.K. Patil, R. Roshan Baig, Shamanoor Shivash ankarappa and D.K. Shivakumar.
With better hold among the legislators, Siddaramaiah could pip veteran Congress leader and Union labour and employment minister M. Mallikarjuna Kharge in a straight contest.
However, Antony announced that he wanted to obtain the opinion of legislators first in writing. Siddaramaiah announced that he would take the oath on Monday and would then go to Delhi to thank top Congress leaders.
“I will live up to Sonia Gandhi’s expectations and the faith reposed in me. My first job is to provide a clean and transparent government. The Congress is committed to inclusive growth, I am wedded to this ideology,” he declared.
The Congress earlier this week, swept to power with a comfortable majority of 121 MLAs in the 224-member House, unseating the BJP which fared miserably winning only 40 seats, down by 70 compared to 2008 polls.

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