The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has unanimously decided to leave the selection of the new Karnataka Chief Minister to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge.

“The Congress Legislature Party unanimously resolves that AICC President is hereby authorised to appoint the new leader of the Congress Legislature Party,” the resolution stated. The CLP meeting is currently underway at Shangri-la Hotel in Bengaluru.

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Ahead of the CLP meeting today, a huge number of supporters gathered outside the residence of Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar in Bengaluru on Sunday and raised slogans of ‘We want DK Shivakumar as CM’.
Congress, which registered an emphatic victory defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka on Saturday, now faces the challenge of deciding the chief minister amid speculations of Siddaramaiah being the front-runner followed by state party president DK Shivakumar.

Kharge on Sunday appointed three observers in Karnataka including former Maharashtra chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and party leaders Jitendra Singh and Deepak Babaria for the election of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader in the state.

Taking to his social media handle, KC Venugopal said, “Congress President has deputed Sushil Kumar Shinde (Former Chief Minister, Maharashtra), Jitendra Singh (AICC GS) and Deepak Babaria (former AICC GS) as observers for the election of the Congress Legislative party (CLP) Leader of Karnataka.”

The observers will be present in the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting and will submit the report to the party’s high command.

Earlier on Saturday, Venugopal referred to the Congress party’s big win in the Karnataka Assembly elections as ‘one of the milestones ahead of the 2024 elections.

Speaking about the win, KC Venugopal said, “This is one of the milestones of the 2024 elections.”

Venugopal further said that Congress stood for the poor in the state and thus won the mandate of the people.

“The type of divisive politics that BJP does, is not going to be successful every time. This is a clear message. We stood for the poor people of Karnataka. They stood for the rich. Finally, the poor won this election. This is the clear narrative of this election”, he said.

According to the Election Commission of India, Congress won 135 seats pushing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power in the only southern state it ruled and boosting its own prospects for the electoral battles ahead. BJP managed to win 66 seats.

Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) bagged 19 seats. Independents have won two seats while Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha won one seat each.