In a significant development, newly elected Congress MLAs in Karnataka have granted the authority to the party president, Mallikarjun Kharge, to select the next chief minister for the state, according to PTI. The decision was made at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, which took place on Sunday evening at a private hotel in Karnataka's capital city of Bangalore.
According to party sources, the meeting was attended by all the newly elected Congress MLAs, and a unanimous resolution was passed authorising the party president to select the leader who will head the government in Karnataka.
Earlier in the day, the Congress central observers, led by AICC General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal, met with Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President D K Shivakumar.
The observers were deputed by the Congress president Kharge, who entrusted the task of observing the election of the CLP leader to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, AICC General Secretary Jitendra Singh, and former AICC General Secretary Deepak Babaria.
The Congress party's decision to allow the party president to select the chief minister of Karnataka reflects a show of unity within the party, and it is likely that the party will move forward with a strong and cohesive leadership. Congress secured a resounding victory in the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly polls, winning 135 seats out of a total of 224, while the BJP secured only 66 seats.