Karnataka Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar met with party president Mallikarjun Kharge separately at his home in New Delhi to talk about forming the government in Karnataka. Shivakumar arrived earlier in the day from Bengaluru and talked to Kharge about the post of chief minister for Karnataka. He left after 30 minutes without talking to the media. Then Siddaramaiah arrived and had discussions with Kharge about the top post. Both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah want to be chief minister after their party won 135 out of 224 seats in the Karnataka Assembly polls.
Supporters of both leaders are lobbying hard for their candidate. The newly-elected MLAs in Karnataka already passed a resolution that authorizes Kharge to appoint the legislature party leader as the new chief minister. Kharge appointed three central observers to meet with the Congress legislature party in Bengaluru, and they have already submitted their report to him after talking to all Congress MLAs individually. The observers asked for their opinions on who should be the new chief minister.
