After a sweeping victory that ended the Congress’ seven years in the wilderness, the party is in danger of falling prey to traditional infighting if it doesn’t pick a chief minister quickly, as one leader after another announces his “availability” for the top job.
The A.K. Antony Committee, expected to meet Thursday will deliberate on the choices before them with the two men in contention expected to be Union labour minister Malikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly Siddaramaiah.
KPCC president G. Parameshwar, who lost his own seat of Korategere by a shock margin of 18,155 votes, and yet, brought in the largest number of votes since 2004, has had to put his CM ambitions on hold and eye a Rajya Sabha seat, opening the door for the ambitious Kuruba leader Siddaramaiah to emerge as a strong contender for the post of chief minister.
Mr Siddaramaiah, formerly with the JD(S) and still seen as an outsider in some quarters of the Congress, has openly thrown his hat into the ring, claiming that the AHINDA factor which he brought into play was behind the victory of the party in all 223 of the 224 assembly seats, of which the Congress won 121, well over the magic figure of 113.
AHINDA is the Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and dalits.
However, Mr Siddaramaiah, who as the Opposition leader in the last Assembly, is one of a handful of mass leaders in the Congress party, may have to contend with the emergence of dark horse Kharge, whose strength comes from winning 57 out of 89 seats for the party in the 13 districts in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region and Belgaum district of which he is charge.
Insiders are also indicating that there is an outside chance for former foreign minister S.M. Krishna to become CM, if the party feels the need to reach out to the Vokkaligas.