Karnataka CM logjam persists, Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar meet Mallikarjun Kharge

Shubhadeep Choudhury

new delhi, May 16

Three days after the Congress recorded a landslide win in the Karnataka Assembly elections, suspense over the Chief Minister’s post continued on Tuesday with party president Mallikarjun Kharge’s meetings with the two contenders — former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and state unit president DK Shivakumar — ending inconclusively.

The day saw hectic activity in the Congress camp after Shivakumar, a senior Vokkaliga leader, virtually staked claim to the top post saying the “party is his mother and a mother will give everything to her child”.

Congress in huddle to work out possibilities

We have built this party (Congress), we have built this house. I am a part of it…A mother will give everything to her child…. If the party wants, it can give me the responsibility… — DK Shivakumar, Karnataka Congress chief

Although Siddaramaiah has been in the Capital since yesterday, Shivakumar had cancelled his Monday visit, citing health reasons.

He finally arrived today. Although the Karnataka Congress chief categorically denied possibilities of resigning in the event of losing out in the CM’s race, Shivakumar is learnt to have told the party leadership that he would “work as an ordinary MLA if not picked as CM”.