Who will be Karnataka's new CM? Here are the contenders

The decks seem to have been cleared for Karnataka's Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah (65) to become the Chief Minister of Karnataka. He has won his seat in Mysore district, and the Congress looks set to form the government. Siddaramaiah's main rival, the President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee G.Parameshwara appears to be on losing ground.  

Siddaramaiah was a practicing advocate in Mysore, who also taught law for some time. His first foray in electoral politics was in 1980 when he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Mysore. He lost. He later entered the Karnataka Assembly as a member of the Lok Dal party in 1983.  

He does not belong to the two dominant communities of the state, the Lingayat and Vokkaliga. He is from the Kuruba caste, the third largest community. He always championed the cause of the backward classes, Dalits and minorities. He has been above controversy all through his political career and his image is clean.  His wife, Parvathy, is hardly seen in public. Of his two sons, one is a doctor while the other helps Siddaramaiah in his political camapaigns.

Siddaramaiah spent a large part of his political career in the parties associated with the Janata Dal, which the Congress's main opponent nationally before the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

When former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and the late Ramakrishna Hegde - both leading figures in the Janata umbrella - fell apart in the mid 1990s, Siddaramaiah sided with Deve Gowda. He represented Janata Dal (Secular), Deve Gowda's party, in the Congress-JD(S) coalition that came to power in 2004 and was Deputy Chief Minister.

He ushered in the value added tax (VAT) system in Karnataka as Deputy CM in charge of the finance portfolio. The government, however, fell in January 2006 after the JD(S) withdrew its support and joined hands with the BJP.

By then, however, Siddaramaiah had distanced himself from the party inviting expulsion for anti-party activities.  He later joined the Congress, and strengthened the party in Karnataka paving the way for its return to power.

MALLIKARJUNA KHARGE:

Union Labour Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge (71) is also in the race. A senior leader from the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, Kharge was Home Minister in the cabinet of former Congress chief minister S.M.Krishna. He has never lost an election from his native Gulbarga district, winning the Assembly election 10 times. He contested Lok Sabha polls from Gulbarga in 2009 and became a member of the Union Cabinet.

A Dalit, Kharge has always been known as a no-nonsense administrator and a chief ministerial candidate. He had been projected as a chief ministerial candidate even in the 1990s. but S.M.Krishna pipped him to the post once the Congress won.

DARK HORSES

While Siddaramaiah and Kharge are the front runners, there is the possibility of the Congress high command sending Petroleum Minister M. Veerappa Moily or AICC leader Oscar Fernandes to Bangalore for the job.