The two candidates for chief minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar, met Rahul Gandhi individually on Wednesday amid frantic discussions within the Congress to select a candidate for the position.
The meetings took place a day after Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had separate meetings at Mallikarjun Kharge’s home with him to discuss the formation of the cabinet.
Following a 30-minute meeting between Siddaramaiah and the former party leader, D K Shivakumar, the head of the Congress in the state of Karnataka, met Gandhi.
The central observer for the Karnataka CLP meeting—where the MLAs gave Kharge permission to choose the new CLP leader—met separately with the Congress president at his home and had additional conversations there.
After the party seized control of Karnataka from the BJP, both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are vying for the top position.
While each leader’s followers make their case for their preferred candidate, the Congress is developing a power-sharing plan that will satisfy all constituencies.
While Shivakumar has dug in his heels for the top job, stating that the state was won under him as state party president and that he has worked hard to ensure this triumph, Siddaramaiah is widely seen as the front-runner among the two.
After the Congress pulled off a shock victory in the assembly elections, gaining 135 of 224 seats, the party has conducted a number of meetings to discuss who will be the state’s chief minister.
