Siddaramaiah will be the next CM of Karnataka and D K Shivakumar his deputy, Congress sources in Delhi said on Thursday after the party arrived at a consensus on government formation in the state following hectic parleys.
The war between the two factions in the Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit continues, with pressure being mounted on newly-appointed Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda. Gowda, who held his first review meeting on Friday, now faces the challenges posed to him by the faction led by BJP leader Jagadish Shettar. Shettar was also a frontrunner for the coveted CM's post. Shettar and his supporters have demanded the following portfolios -- deputy chief minister, Home and Revenue.
The rift within former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's family over the Hassan ticket for the May 10 assembly polls widened on Tuesday, with Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy invoking the battle of 'Kurukshetra' in the epic Mahabharata to allege that some 'Shakunis' were trying to brainwash his brother H D Revanna.
While one headache for the Bharatiya Janata Party is over on Wednesday with the appointment of a new chief minister in Sadananda Gowda, the other one that remains is to keep the rival faction happy.
Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday took charge as the new Chief Minister of Karnataka, ending months of speculation about the change of guard in the state.
The 61-year old leader will take oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka from Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday at 11 am.
Plagued by desertions, internal rifts, and with the image of being a "family party", it remains to be seen how Gowda's son and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy would steer the party in the May 10 assembly polls.
Siddaramaiah's anti-urban bias, which he does not bother to hide, may become the Congress government's biggest weakness unless it is corrected.
According to party sources, the Congress leadership has been making efforts to convince some ministers and lawmakers to contest, as they have faced problems in identifying winnable candidates in several segments.
'Bommai's predicament is pathetic right now because deep inside he is not like this, but to remain in power he has to talk and speak against his own conscience.'
Sreeshankar jumps huge 8.41m in National Inter-State, qualifies for World Championships
HD Kumaraswamy, former chief minister, will contest from Channapatna where he had won the election defeating local heavyweight CP Yogeshwar in 2018.
He also asserted that everything has gone smoothly for the party in the assembly polls and the government will be formed soon.
Farmers organisations and pro-Kannada organisations staged protests in Mysuru, Mandya, Bengaluru and other parts expressing their anger and urging the state government not to release water to Tamil Nadu.
In an apparent bid to reject criticism that he wants to rule by proxy by installing D V Sadananda Gowda as his successor, B S Yeddyurappa, who resigned from post for Karnataka chief minister on Sundat, asserted he did not want to become "a super CM".
'Do you want Tipu or Savarkar? Where should we send Tipu Sultan? What did Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda do? In the same way he should be knocked out and sent off'
The coming weeks are sure to have a lot of drama unfolding in Maharashtra, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
There seems to be no "closure" for B S Yediyurappa, the Bharatiya Janata Party's "comeback man" in Karnataka, as he could never complete a full term in office, despite becoming the chief minister four times, surmounting odds. It's also too early to write a political obituary of the 78-year old Lingayat strongman and the 24X7 politician, the face of the party in the state for decades.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed questions for the prime minister ahead of his rallies in Karnataka.
For the May 10 assembly elections in Karnataka, the following are the 20 seats to watch out for.
As Karnataka gears up for D-Day, with most exit poll projections predicting a hung assembly while putting the Congress in the lead, the outcome will boil down to how the battle for some key constituencies play out.
With just a few hours to go before Lokayukta of Karnataka Justice Santhosh Hegde submits his report on illegal mining, there is a lot of talk about a possible successor to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.
According to the Congress, 37 leaders associated with JD-S in the 2018 assembly polls, have joined the party so far, in the run up to the upcoming elections.
Murali Sreeshankar is the only third Indian to finish in the top-three of a Diamond League after Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and former discus thrower Vikas Gowda.
Another round of infighting within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka has commenced. Nine ministers loyal to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa quit the state cabinet on Friday evening, which has mounted pressure on CM Sadananda Gowda.
The ruling Congress posted a video along with a statement on social media platform X, criticising the Janata Dal-Secular leader and son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.
In switching over, Nitish has sent out a message that if he could not now become the NDA's PM, then he would need to stay on as CM at the very least, which a third term for Modi would not let him have, N Sathiya Moorthy points out.
In Vijayapura, Yediyurappa said neither he nor his son have made any such statements, and would not like to react to comments made by someone close to Vijayendra.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has paved the way for the appointment of Jagadish Shettar as the next chief minister of Karnataka. BJP leader L K Advani who had reservations about the appointment of Shettar appears to have given in to the demands made by former Karnataka CM B S Yeddyurappa and his camp.
The party leadership blamed two of its MLAs, Srinivas Gowda from Kolar and S R Srinivas from Gubbi, for betraying the party.
Success in Karnataka's assembly polls will hinge on two factors: Drop a large number of incumbent MLAs and project Modi and not the state leaders, least of all Bommai.
Multiple challenges, particularly with regard to cabinet formation, stare at Siddaramaiah as he takes over as the new chief minister of Karnataka, nudging out party colleague and state Congress president D K Shivakumar -- who will now be his deputy.
They are the contenders, the leaders of parties that will finally form a government in Karnataka.
There are critics who say the Bommai's government was not able to counter the Congress narrative to paint his administration as corrupt, a factor that helped the Congress surge in the May 10 assembly elections.
Today, with the Lok Sabha polls only months away, any inter-state dispute over the Cauvery water dispute has the potential to take more political turns than otherwise, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
'Free this and free that, and the voters were with them.'
The Congress and JD-S have made much of Amit Shah's remarks about milk co-operatives. 'If the Opposition harps on the statement, it could add to the narrative that Gujarat was trying to take over Karnataka.'
Headed by former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, the JD-S has long been a strong third player in the southern state where the Congress and the BJP have been the two main parties.
Polling is being held for 224 seats in what is being seen mainly as a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal-Secular.
