K’taka polls: All eyes on who would be the next CM

Having established a firm lead in over 130 Assembly seats in Karnataka, all eyes are on who would assume the post of Chief Minister. It’s Siddaramaiah versus DK Shivakumar tussle for the chief minister’s job. Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar are the Congress’s top leaders in Karnataka, one a former chief minister and the other, the state Congress chief. Siddaramaiah, 75, has said this is his last electoral contest. His son Yathindra Siddaramaiah said his father should be chief minister “for the sake of Karnataka”. “As a son, definitely I would like to see him as a chief minister. But as a resident of the state, his last regime saw good governance. This time also, if he becomes Chief Minister, the corruption and misrule of the BJP rule will be corrected by him. In the interest of the State also, he should become Chief Minister,” said Siddaramaiah junior. Shivakumar, 61, has been the congress’s go-to troubleshooter for years. He is one of the wealthiest politicians in Karnataka. The prominence of “DKS” rose in 2019 when he tried and failed to salvage the Congress-Janata Dal Secular coalition government, which collapsed after the mass defection of MLAs from both parties.