DKS, Siddaramaiah in race for CM'S post, MLAs meet today

NEW DELHI: After a comprehensive win for the Congress in Karnataka, the newly elected MLAs are heading towards Bengaluru. A meeting of the party's newly elected MLAs is expected to be held on Sunday amid a race for the chief minister's post between former CM Siddaramaiah and state unit chief D.K. Shivakumar.

At a press conference, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who also hails from the state, said that the party high command will decide who will be the next chief minister after the due process of the party is followed.

Addressing the conference, Mr Kharge said, "Those who wanted to make 'Congress Mukt Bharat' (Congress-free India) spoke many things against us, but today one thing has come true and that is 'BJP Mukt Dakshin Bharat' (BJP-free South India)."

The Congress president also cautioned partymen not to get smug, saying they should work with all humility and remain grounded.

Meanwhile, both the top contenders -- Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Shivakumar -- have said that the newly elected MLAs and the high command will decide.

The Congress president is expected to return to Delhi on Sunday. Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Shivakumar are also expected to visit Delhi and meet the Gandhis.

The Karnataka victory has rejuvenated the party and can very well revive the Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra and an aggressive campaign by the Gandhi clan worked for the party in Karnataka.

Giving credit to Mr Gandhi's yatra, the Congress put out a table comparing the party's performance in the 20 Assembly seats through which the yatra had passed. The list showed that the Congress, which won 5 out of these 20 seats in the 2018 Assembly elections, made huge gains and was leading in 15 seats at 4 pm on Saturday. The BJP, which won nine of the 20 seats last time, was ahead in two seats. The JDS, which won six seats, was leading in three seats. Party leaders claim that the Karnataka win is a shot in the arm for Mr Gandhi.

Highlighting the impact of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, party's communications chief Jairam Ramesh said, "The intangible impact was uniting the party, reviving the cadre and shaping the narrative for the Karnataka elections. It was during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, from the many conversations Mr Gandhi had with the people of Karnataka, that the guarantees and the promises in our manifesto were discussed and finalised."

Hailing the party's performance in the Karnataka Assembly polls, Mr Gandhi called it the victory of love over hate and claimed that this will be replicated in other states. He said: "Love has won and hate has lost. We gave guarantees to the people and we will fulfill them."

In order to win the Assembly polls, the party selectively targeted different vote banks. According to a census of 2018, when the Congress was in power, though the census report has not yet been made public, the dalits are 19.5 per cent. The other caste breakups include tribals at 5 per cent, Kurubas at 7 per cent, rest of the OBCs at 16 per cent, Lingayats at 14 per cent, Vokkaligas at 11 per cent, Brahmins at 3 per cent, Christians at 3 per cent, Buddhists and Jains together at 2 per cent and the others account for 4 per cent.

The last-minute addition of plans to ban the Bajrang Dal in the Congress manifesto was a move to consolidate both Muslim and dalit votes in favour of the party. In the last year, there have been some attacks on Dalits in which Bajrang Dal activists were apprehended by the local police. Due to this, there was resentment against the Bajrang Dal among the dalits.

The addition also ensured that the Muslim vote of 16 per cent did not get divided between the JD(S) and the Congress.

The Congress party claimed that it fought the Karnataka elections on local issues such as livelihood and food security, inflation, farmer crisis, power supply, unemployment and corruption.

Mr Ramesh said: "The Prime Minister adopted a divisive strategy and attempted to polarise the voters. Karnataka has voted for an engine in Bangalore that will connect economic development with social harmony. Our party has fought the Karnataka polls on local issues such as livelihood and food security, price rise, farmer distress, electricity supply, joblessness, and corruption.