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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Winning the electoral contest in the southern state of Karnataka is key to the revival of its image as the main opposition player against the saffron party for the Indian National Congress.  A win in Karnataka will give the Congress a boost of sorts to take on the BJP later this year in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

During the election campaign in Karnataka run by its state leaders, the grand old party focussed on local issues.. This poll is also a prestige battle in a way for the party with a Kannadiga Mallikarjun Kharge, who hails from Kalaburagi district.

Though the campaign initially centered around its state leaders like Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, Kharge gave it momentum and thereby prepared the pitch for the party’s top leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi to join in. Their mother and former AICC president Sonia Gandhi addressed a party rally in Hubballi on Saturday.

The party held 99 public meetings and 33 roadshows by its top state and central leaders. The Congress has set a target of winning 150 seats, and has been urging voters to ensure that it gets an absolute majority, so that BJP doesn’t “steal” the mandate by managing defections of other party legislators and “manufacture” a majority in its favour. The Congress’s main issues to attack the BJP government in this election were over corruption/ scams and the charge of 40 per cent commission, coupled with the Adani issue.

The Congress’ has promised to implement ‘guarantees’ – 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs.2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs.3,000 every month for graduate youth and Rs.1,500 for diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (YuvaNidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti), on the very first day, on coming to power in the state.

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Siddaramaiah has been admitted to Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru where CM Yediyurappa is currently on treatment for the same.

Taking to Twitter, Siddaramaiah said he has been admitted to the hospital on medical advice.

“I have been tested positive for #Covid19 & also been admitted to the hospital on the advice of doctors as a precaution. I request all those who had come in contact with me to check out for symptoms & to quarantine themselves,” his tweet read.

I have been tested positive for #Covid19 & also been admitted to the hospital on the advice of doctors as a precaution.

I request all those who had come in contact with me to check out for symptoms & to quarantine themselves.

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) August 4, 2020

The opposition leader didn’t show any symptoms and he was admitted to the hospital as doctors advised him to do so. He is stable and doing well.

On August 2, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram tested positive for covid-19.

Siddaramaiah had requested those who had come in contact with him in the last few days to undergo covid-19 test. He also urged people not to be anxious or panic.

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