Popular Front Day to be observed on Feb 17

As the race for the next Karnataka chief minister heats up, all eyes are on the Congress' top leadership here on their pick for the top post in the southern state.

After the Congress party staged a stupendous victory in the May 10 assembly polls, intense lobbying for the chief minister's post in Karnataka started between former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president D K Shivakumar.

The three central observers deputed by the Congress on Monday returned to the national capital after speaking individually to the newly elected MLAs.

The observers will hand over the report on the views expressed by all the newly elected MLAs to party president Mallikarjun Kharge soon.

Kharge is likely to take a decision on who will be the next chief minister of Karnataka soon. He is also likely to hold consultations with top Congress leadership, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Meanwhile, the party is also gearing up for preparations for making the swearing-in ceremony of the chief minister a big show of strength, where several opposition leaders will be invited.

With Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar both staking claim to the top post, they are lobbying hard for it with supporters of each one raising the pitch in support of their leader.

A poster war by supporters of both leaders also erupted soon after the party won the election.

Kharge had appointed former Maharashtra chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde, party general secretary Jitendra Singh and former AICC general secretary Deepak Babaria as observers for the election of the CLP Leader of Karnataka.

The three leaders along with AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala left Bengaluru for Delhi and will meet Kharge soon.

The observers spoke individually to all the newly elected MLAs and sought their opinion on who should be the chief minister of the state.

They spoke to all the MLAs after dinner at a private hotel on Sunday night and completed the process late at night.

Earlier, during the meeting of the Congress Legislature Party in Bengaluru on Sunday evening the MLAs passed a one-line resolution authorising the party president to appoint the CLP leader in the state who would be the next chief minister. 

Newsroom, May 20: The freshly sworn-in Karnataka Cabinet on Saturday had its first meeting, post which the Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, announced the approval of poll promises made by the Congress.

"Five guarantees in the manifesto were promised and the order for the implementation of those five guarantees was given after the first Cabinet meeting. All will be in force after next cabinet meeting which will be called within a week," Siddaramaiah told reporters during a press conference in the Vidhan Soudha.

During the campaign for the Karnataka Assembly elections - which the Congress won by a landslide, bagging 136 seats - the party had made five guarantees to the people.

Here are the five schemes announced by the Congress in its election manifesto:

Gruha Jyothi
This scheme assures 200 units of free electricity per month for every household in the state.

Gruha Lakshmi
This scheme aims to provide Rs 2,000 every month to the woman head of a house.

Anna Bhagya
10 kg of free rice will be provided to Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders per month.

Yuva Nidhi
The scheme promises Rs 3,000 to graduate unemployed youth and Rs 1,500 to unemployed diploma holders of this year maximum of up to two years.

Sakshi scheme
It aims to provide free bus passes for women in Karnataka to travel across the state.

These five guarantees were given in-principal approval the same day as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his Cabinet took oath in the state capital.

Prior to the Cabinet meeting, Siddaramaiah announced that his government would fulfill the election guarantees they made.

"We will give an administration which people have expected from us. Five guarantees will be passed in the cabinet meeting and an order will be issued to implement them today itself," Siddaramaiah said soon after taking oath as the Chief Minister.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the five 'guarantees' promised by the party before the elections in Karnataka would be implemented within a few hours after the first Cabinet meeting.

"I had said we don't make false promises. We do what we say. The first cabinet meeting of the new government will take place in one to two hours. In that meeting, all the five 'guarantees' will become a law," Gandhi said after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's swearing-in ceremony.

In the May 10 Assembly elections, the Congress ousted the BJP from power, winning 135 seats in the 224-member Assembly. BJP got 66 seats and the Janata Dal (Secular) headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda managed only 19.

Bengaluru, May 19: Congress has not invited AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, BSP’s Mayawati, BRS’ K Chandrasekhar Rao, BJD’s Naveen Patnaik and YSR Congress’ Jaganmohan Reddy for Siddaramaiah’s swearing in on Saturday in Bengaluru where the party intends to display a show of strength of the Opposition.

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee will not attend the ceremony despite being invited to the ceremony in Kanteerava stadium but deputed Lok Sabha Deputy Leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar for the event. 

Mamata, who “conveyed her best wishes” after Siddaramaiah and other leaders personally invited her, not sending Sudip Bandhyopadhyay or Derek O’Brien is seen as a signal by the Trinamool Congress that it is not so much thrilled by the Congress victory and it does not want to give much lee-way in Opposition politics.

Congress’ decision not to invite at least five parties to the function, sources said, is part of positioning in respective states. The Congress is at loggerheads with AAP in Punjab and Delhi where state leaders are up in arms against any sort of link with the Kejriwal-led party and had vehemently opposed when central leadership leaned towards it.

Though BRS was its comrade-in-arms in Parliament, the upcoming Telangana elections and Rao’s allegiance to the regional party bloc has generated suspicion in Congress circles. The state unit is also against any signal to BRS. 

BSP’s Mayawati is another leader the Congress has not invited. BSP has so far kept itself away from any Opposition grouping in the recent past and the Congress does not consider that Mayawati is in any way inclined to join the Opposition.

YSR Congress and BJD have also scrupulously kept themselves away from the Opposition and though there are demands from a section of the Opposition, they have not given any signal.

Leaders from parties like DMK, NCP, RJD, CPI(M), CPI, Shiv Sena (UBT), JMM, National Conference and Samajwadi Party have been invited to the function. Some more parties are also on the list.

With the Congress inviting Chief Ministers like MK Stalin, Nitish Kumar, Mamata and Hemant Soren, the omission of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has raised eye-brows. Congress sources said nothing much should be read into it, as only party leaders are invited and an invite has gone to CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.

However, there are indications that the Congress kept the political situation in Kerala in mind during discussions while preparing the invitee list.