Shillong, May 14: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was easily defeated in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly election on Saturday. This was the Congress’s first state election victory since Himachal Pradesh last year.
After supporters of the outgoing Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Siddaramaiah and state chief of Congress DK Shivakumar erected posters in the capital seeking the appointment of their “man”, the Congress woke up to a poster war within on Sunday.
The fact that the Congress would have to pick between its two tallest leaders in the state was inevitable, and the understanding that the party needed to operate as a team to defeat the BJP’s much-heralded electoral apparatus was the only thing keeping a lid on a rivalry that was now reportedly boiling over violently for the past sometime.
And now that the party has achieved what has been called a record victory (in terms of vote share), it seems the gloves have taken off. Posters outside DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah’s homes in Bengaluru to officially start the “CM race” were seen by locals.
DK Shivakumar, who is widely regarded as the Congress’ point man in the southern state, launched his bid for the position of chief minister last evening, not long after former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai announced his resignation.