Hyderabad: A day after, the Congress swept past the majority mark, registering its best-ever performance in Karnataka since 1999 with 136 seats in the 224-seat assembly, a poster war broke out between the supporters of outgoing Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah and state unit president DK Shivakumar.
The triumphant party mandarins woke up to the unsavoury gesture on Sunday morning when the roads side of Bengaluru city were plastered with posters in support of both leaders by their followers, who demanded their 'leader' be installed in the Chief Minister's seat. Earlier, a high-decibel poll saw the supporters of both the Congress leaders taking the battle to the BJP fort in a unified manner without no malice directed towards each others' camps. The same bonhomie seems missing soon after poll trends started emerging with a clear indication of a clean sweep for Congress.
On Saturday, even before the Bommai conceded defeat, Siddaramaiah's son Yathindra went public with comments about his preference for his father for the top post. Just a day later, Shivakumar's brother DK Suresh, who is a Congress MP, went on to state that he will be the happiest if his elder brother becomes the Chief Minister.
Incidentally, the Congress Legislature Party is going to meet today at 5.30 pm where the MLAs are likely to choose the new Chief Minister of Karnataka. The party's high command has asked all MLAs to reach Bengaluru for the crucial meeting. DK Shivakumar, an eight-time MLA, is from the Vokkaliga sect, which is the second most dominant community in Karnataka after Lingayats. The 60-year-old Congress leader is known for his loyalty to the Gandhi family just like his more senior party leader Siddaramaiah, an ex-CM between 2013 and 2018. Siddaramaiah, who raced past Mallikarjun Kharge, the now party president, to become the Chief Minister in 2013; represents the third-largest Korba community.
