Next Karnataka CM: trouble-shooter DK Shivakumar or experienced Siddaramaiah - whom will Congress pick?

Congress has emerged victorious in the Karnataka election, but the party faces another challenging task ahead - choosing the new Chief Minister. There are mainly two contenders for the top post - Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar.

WILL D.K.S. PREVAIL?

Shivakumar is the president of the Congress' Karnataka unit. He is known as one of the party's most important trouble-shooters.

Shivakumar demonstrated this in 2018, when the election resulted in a hung Assembly. He helped Congress keep its flock together till a post-poll alliance with JD(S) was finalised, although the government later fell as 14 Congress MLAs defected to BJP.

Shivakumar had used these skills in 2017 to protect Gujarat MLAs from poaching attempts by shifting them to a resort near Bengaluru. The same year, Shivakumar helped Sonia Gandhi's key aide Ahmed Patel win a Rajya Sabha election.

Another sign of Shivakumar's influence is that the only Congress MP from Karnataka in the current Lok Sabha is his brother. Shivakumar has reportedly not lost an election since 1989, and served as minister in various governments.

He hails from a modest agrarian family from the Vokkaliga community, but Shivakumar is now among the richest politicians in the state. He declared total family assets of ₹1,358 crore in the 2023 polls.

The Congress leader has also been facing heat from the CBI, Income Tax Department, and the Enforcement Directorate in alleged money laundering and tax evasion cases. He also spent around 50 days in jail after in 2019.

WILL 'SIDDA' MAKE A COMEBACK?

The other candidate is Siddaramaiah whose first stint as Chief Minister began in 2013, when he edged out current Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to lead the Congress government.

Considered one of the tallest mass leaders in Karnataka currently, Siddaramaiah belongs to the Kuruba community, which is reportedly the third-largest caste in the state.

He first became an MLA in 1983 on a Lok Dal Party ticket, but later joined the Janata Dal (Secular). In 2004, when the Congress and JD(S) formed a coalition government, Siddaramaiah became the deputy CM.

By 2005, he was positioning himself as a backward classes leader, but was ousted from the JD(S), apparently after running afoul of a rising HD Kumaraswamy. In 2006, Siddaramaiah joined the Congress.

Ahead of the last elections in 2018 - when Congress was voted out - Siddaramaiah is believed to have committed a blunder by deciding to grant "religious minority" status to Lingayats.

He has declared that the 2023 polls are his last electoral foray.