Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah Set To Resign Tomorrow, Paving Way For D K Shivakumar’s Succession

Bengaluru: A day after marathon meeting with the party high command, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is all set to make a graceful exit from the post, by tendering his resignation to the Governor on Thursday.

While Siddaramaiah goes down in the history of the State as the longest served Chief Minister, his deputy D K Shivakumar is all set to take over as the Chief Minister for the next two years.

Though both the leaders maintained silence about the transition, uneasy calm prevailed in Siddaramaiah camp. On Wednesday, Siddaramaiah attended a function to mark death anniversary of the former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, spoke to media about his contributions to the country. However, he refused even to comment on the political developments.

According to party sources, Siddaramaiah has convened a breakfast meeting of the ministers on Thursday morning. After the meeting, he would be heading to Look Bhavan and tender his resignation. He will be talking to the media only after that.

Meanwhile, AICC General Secretaries -- K C Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala will be arriving in Bengaluru on Wednesday evening. A CLP meeting will be convened on Friday morning, where D K Shivakumar's name will be cleared.

Later, Shivakumar will take out a date for the swearing in ceremony.

On Tuesday in Delhi, the party high command, including Rahul Gandhi had to struggle to convince Siddaramaiah to agree for their terms.

Though Siddaramaiah was ready to resign, he didn't wanted Rajya Sabha berth and wanted to stay back in Karnataka.

Secondly, he wanted a dalit to replace him as the chief minister. However, Rahul Gandhi was firm that he should come to Rajya Sabha and help party to consolidate AHINDA votes in National level. Besides, he said that the party would decide on Siddaramaiah's successor.

Siddaramaiah, who was trained under former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda in Janata Parivar, had quit JD(S) and joined Congress in 2008. He made sure that the Congress replaced Mallikarjun Charge to make him the opposition leader in the Assembly. When the party came to power in 2013, he became the Chief Minister and completed five tears term. When the party lost in 2018, he was the opposition leader. When the party came to power in 2023, he became chief minister again.

He ruled the state for little over eight years, breaking the earlier record of Devaraj Urs, who was Chief Minister of the State for a period of seven years and 234 days.