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In a swift move, the Congress high command announced on Friday that Siddaramaiah would be the new Chief Minister of Karnataka.
Senior party leader and Union Defence Minister A.K. Antony, who flew in from New Delhi as the party’s central observer to oversee the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet, announced the decision to appoint Siddaramaiah as Chief Minister after a secret ballot.
As expected, there was a bit of drama before the nomination. At the CLP meet, newly-elected legislators moved a resolution, requesting that a decision on the Chief Minister’s post be left to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Antony, with other central observers — AICC general secretary in-charge of the State Madhusudan Mistri, screening committee chairman Luizinho Faleiro and Union Minister Jitender Singh — consulted the party leadership.
Secret ballot
But the central leadership insisted that the legislators should express their choice in writing, by a secret ballot. Subsequently, the process of electing Siddaramaiah as Chief Minister went smoothly.
Soon after the elections, Siddaramaiah had announced that he was in the running for the Chief Minister’s post. Hailing from the Kuruba community, Siddaramaiah entered the political scene after winning the Assembly seat from Chamundeshwari in 1983 on a Janata Party ticket. He joined the Congress in 2006 from the JD-S and was Deputy Chief Minister to J.H. Patel in 1996 and to Dharam Singh in 2004, when the JD-S and Congress formed a coalition.
anil.u@thehindu.co.in
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