‘Expect 20 newcomers in Cabinet’: What's next in Karnataka? Shivakumar may be elected CM in Congress MLAs' meet tomorrow

A day after Siddaramaiah resigned as the Karnataka Chief Minister, former Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said on Friday that a Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting has been convened for Saturday.

Shivakumar said no decision has yet been taken regarding the formation of the new Cabinet in the state.

"The CLP meeting will be held tomorrow...Our central leaders have to come...We have told all MLAs to be present in Bengaluru. Apart from that, nothing else is there," Shivakumar told ANI on Friday.

The meeting will be held in Bengaluru at 4 PM on Saturday at the conference hall in Vidhana Soudha, the seat of the state legislature and secretariat, according to a letter sent by the legislature party secretary Allamprabhu Patil to all legislators, PTI reported.

"The meeting will be chaired by Siddaramaiah, Leader of the Congress Legislature Party. The meeting will also be attended by D K Shivakumar, KPCC President, Randeep Singh Surjewala, AICC General Secretary and Karnataka State in-charge; N S Boseraju, Leader of the House in the Legislative Council; and all working presidents of the party," the letter said.

The development came a day after Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot accepted Siddaramaiah's resignation as chief minister and dissolved the Council of Ministers headed by him.

DK Shivakumar, who served as deputy chief minister under Siddaramaiah, is widely expected to be elected as the new leader of the Congress legislature party.

Amid intense speculation over the next Chief Minister, Congress MLA Ashok Pattan said, "...we will elect DK Shivakumar tomorrow in the CLP meeting and he will form the government."

"...Among 40 members, we expect 20 newcomers to be there in the cabinet. Now, there is no competitor for DK Shivakumar. There is only one name in our party: DK Shivakumar. He will become CM tomorrow," Pattan told ANI.

On Thursday, at a breakfast hosted at his residence for cabinet colleagues, Siddaramaiah informed the ministers of his decision to step down and later resigned.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Shivakumar was quoted by ANI as saying that the discussions with the Congress high command were still underway and all party MLAs had been asked to remain present in Bengaluru for the meeting.

"Everything is happening as requested by the high command. Nothing has been decided. Tomorrow we have called the CLP meeting, our central leaders have to come. We have to discuss with our high command. We have asked all MLAs to be present in Bengaluru. Apart from that, nothing else is there," said Shivakumar.

Siddaramaiah earlier held discussions with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, as well as Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal, regarding the Karnataka cabinet reshuffle, Rajya Sabha elections and other organisational matters.