The ongoing political tug of war between Siddaramaiah and DK Shiva Kumar and delay in the announcement of a new Chief Minister by the Congress prompted caretaker Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday to say that “inability” to decide despite it having a clear majority in the Assembly reflects the internal situation in the Congress
“People have voted for the Congress party hoping that a change of Government will bring a lot of prosperity to the State as well as the people. They are yet to finalise their CM candidate. It is their internal matter, I don’t want to discuss much on that,” he said in response to a question in Bengaluru.
He asked the Congress to settle the issue of Government formation soon.
The “inability” to choose a CM early is a reflection on the party, Bommai claimed.
“Despite having a complete majority, the party is unable to decide its leader. This shows the internal situation of the party.”
Congress has 135 MLAs in the 224-strong Karnataka Assembly.
“Aspirations of the people are more important than politicking. They (Congress) should settle the issue of a new chief minister and Government formation as soon as possible,” he added.
Responding to a question about the representation Congress may give Lingayats and Vokkaligas and other communities in the Government, Bommai said, “Let’s see what they do”.
He alleged that the grand old party had tried to appease the Lingayat community before the May 10 polls.
“Especially Congress leaders spoke so much about Lingayats and tried to appease them. Let us see what positions they give, whether they will give the office of CM, or Deputy CM or Minister. The community is also watching,” he said.
Meanwhile, as the Congress is struggling to select the new Chief Minister for Karnataka two Ministers in the outgoing BJP Government sought to blame senior Siddaramaiah for the defection of a group of his party’s MLAs that led to the collapse of the H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition Government in 2019 after being in power for 14 months.
K Sudhakar and ST Somashekar, who were Health and Cooperation Ministers respectively in the Basavaraj Bommai Government, raised the issue at a time when Siddaramaiah is in a stiff competition with State Congress president D K Shivakumar to become the Chief Minister, after the Congress won a convincing victory on May 13.