The Congress party Friday picked 64-year-old backward caste Kuruba leader Siddaramaiah to be the new chief minister of Karnataka after a secret poll of its newly-elected legislators under the supervision of AICC observers and consultations with the party high command. The decision of the Congress legislature party was communicated to Governor H R Bhardwaj by state Congress president G Parameshwar. Siddaramaiah,who was in the Janata Dal until as recently as 2006,is expected to take oath as the 23rd chief minister of the state early next week. Despite expectations of a stormy affair,the nearly four-hour Congress legislature party deliberations went off relatively smoothly and signs that the other key contender for the top post,70-year-old Dalit leader and Union Minister Mallikarjun Kharge,had lost out emerged around 3.20 pm when Kharge left the Congress office in a not so happy mood. Congress legislators who finally emerged from the meeting at around 5 pm revealed that the process of selection of the CLP leader involved each of them writing the name of the leader of their choice on a piece of paper and handing it over to the AICC observers - A K Antony,Jitendra Singh,Luizinho Faleiro and Madhusudhan Mistry. Following this exercise,the observers contacted the party high command and finalized the candidate as per the mandate of the legislators and announced Siddaramaiah as the leader of the Congress legislature party. A K Antony addressed the legislators after consultations with the high command and announced that under the present circumstances and situation,Siddaramaiah had been chosen as the CLP leader. Siddaramaiah then addressed the legislators and said the people of Karnataka had voted for a clean,corruption-free,stable government that provides good governance and that we should endeavor to deliver to the expectations of the people, a young Bangalore MLA said after the meeting. Everything went off well, Antony said after the meeting. Addressing his first press conference after being designated chief minister-elect,Siddaramaiah said: The people of Karnataka are expecting a government that functions,one that can win the confidence of people,a corruption-free and transparent government. We will try to live up to the expectations of the people. Although Congress leaders did not officially acknowledge the number of legislators who voted for Siddaramaiah,reports emerged from the meeting that as many as 80 of the 121 legislators,especially the MLAs who worked under Siddaramaiah in the opposition over the last five years and many of the younger legislators,chose him over Kharge. We gave our choices but we do not know the details of the choices of all the legislators. The leader was announced after consultation with the high command, Congress MLA D K Shivakumar said. Siddaramaiah however claimed that his election was unanimous and that no one else was in the fray. There was no vote. Everyone was asked for their opinion. Based on the opinion the observers spoke to Sonia Gandhi and later Antony announced my name, Siddaramaiah said. The ministers in the new government will be decided by the high command,he said.
