Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah appears to be emerging as the frontrunner for the Chief Minister's post in Karnataka ahead of the visit of AICC observers to Bangalore to elect a new leader of the party's legislature group.
With Congress securing a comfortable majority in the southern state, central leaders are speaking of the possibility of an MLA becoming the new CLP leader who will become the Chief Minister.
Siddaramaiah is the Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing assembly who has secured an easy win from his pocketborough of Varuna.
A backward class leader who joined Congress six years ago, Siddaramaiah has already said he was "one of the strong contenders" but has left the decision on chief ministership to the Congress high command and the legislature party.
Reports from Bangalore had it that the race now seems to have narrowed down between Siddaramaiah and Union Minister and party veteran M Mallikarjuna Kharge. Kharge is an MP and so also Union Minister M Veerapa Moily who is also an aspirant.
Congress is sending four AICC observers led by A K Antony to Karnataka tomorrow to elicit the views of newly-elected party MLAs on the issue of Chief Ministership.
Besides Antony, the other Central observers are AICC general secretary in-charge of the state Madhusudan Mistri, Luizinho Faleiro, who was Karnatataka's candidates screening committee chairman, and Union Minister Jitendra Singh.
