Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday put an end to speculations about him being the potential chief ministerial candidate of the party in the poll-bound Karnataka.
Kharge said he is in a capacity to appoint anyone as a chief minister, hence, not interested in staking a claim for the CM post. “I am not the aspirant for Karnataka chief ministership, I appoint chief ministers,” he said at the India Today’s event Karnataka Roundtable 2023.
The Congress president refused to name anyone as the party’s CM face and said the high command will take the final call following the consultations with legislators after the single-phase election scheduled to be held on May 10.
“We always follow one methodology. Whoever the legislator is, election or support will be taken into consideration. Based on the numbers and support of legislators, the Congress high command decides. The decision of the high command is ultimate,” he said.
Two top leaders Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar are considered to be frontrunners for the CM post if the party gets power.
The assembly polls will be held on May 10 and the results will be announced on May 13.
Meanwhile, the Congress alleged Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s office is calling up the returning officers of various districts to find defects in the applications filed by its candidates and rectify the mistakes in those of BJP nominees contesting the May 10 Assembly election.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief D K Shivakumar demanded that the Election Commission should investigate the matter and summon the call details of the CMO to ascertain the truth.
“A major conspiracy is going on to reject the applications of the Congress candidates,” the party’s Karnataka unit chief said in a press conference.
He charged that some applications of the BJP candidates, for instance in Saundatti Yellamma constituency, are defective but the CMO “directly called the officer and directed him to make changes”.
“There is no need to elaborate how a big team is trying to reject (my) application. You all have been informed about it,” the Congress state chief said.
Shivakumar said he has filed the election form 10 times yet “when they can do this to me then imagine what they can do to the ordinary candidates”.
“Pressure is being built on all the returning officers. There is rampant misuse of power. The EC must take note of it. The CMO must be investigated,” the Kanakapura candidate demanded.
(with PTI inputs)
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