The Congress has called a meeting of its MLAs on May 14 evening to deliberate on the tricky issue of who gets the top job after their thumping victory in the Karnataka assembly elections on May 13. In the meeting, which Karnataka Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar said is scheduled for 6 pm at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bengaluru, the Congress Legislative Party is expected to pass a resolution leaving it to the Congress national president to decide the chief minister pick.

The Congress bagged 136 seats and the BJP 64. In the election.

Shivakumar and former Chief Minister and leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah have both been vocal about their aspirations for the top post, raising fears of an unpleasant stand-off within the party if the matter isn’t resolved.

Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, who held a joining press conference with the two top state party leaders last evening dedicating the victory to the people of the state and promising to implement welfare schemes promised in the party manifesto, is headed back to Delhi this afternoon.

The scale of Congress victory is a record in terms of both seats and vote share in over 30 years. The party has won 136 seats — 56 more than in 2018 — with a vote share of 42.9 per cent. The closest the Congress came to this score was in 1999 when it won 132 seats and had a vote share of 40.84 per cent.

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According to the officials, Soren’s swab samples are expected to be tested during the day. Thakur is the first minister in Soren’s cabinet to have tested positive for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Cabinet minister Mithilesh Thakur and another party MLA Mathura Mahato have been found corona positive and are currently under treatment at the COVID-19 ward of Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

Jharkhand has reported over 3,000 COVID-19 cases, on Tuesday, of which, 892 are active. The death toll in the state stands at 22.

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