Siddaramaiah on Thursday informed his Cabinet colleagues that he will step down as Karnataka Chief Minister, signaling the beginning of a leadership transition within the Congress government that is expected to elevate Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to the top job.
According to party leaders familiar with the discussions, Siddaramaiah made the announcement during a breakfast meeting at Cauvery, the chief minister’s official residence in Bengaluru, attended by Shivakumar and senior ministers, including Priyank Kharge, KG George, MP Patel, Ramalinga Reddy and HK Patel.
Security measures were tightened around the headquarters with the arrival of ministers and party leaders during the morning.
Siddaramaiah informed ministers that he intended to formally submit his resignation later in the day, people familiar with the meeting said. He also informed them that a meeting of the Congress party’s legislative body would be held soon to elect a new leader of the assembly and the next chief minister.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said Siddaramaiah called on the ministers to thank them before leaving office.
“The Prime Minister has invited all the ministers for breakfast and before he resigns, he wants to thank all the ministers for their cooperation,” Parameshwara said, indicating that Siddaramaiah’s resignation was imminent.
“I don’t know if he has been offered a position in Delhi; that is up to the high command,” he added.
These developments came in the wake of several rounds of discussions in New Delhi in which Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and the Congress leadership participated. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi are understood to have met separately with both leaders while the party was working on lining up the leadership ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections next month.
Although neither the Congress leadership nor the Raj Bhavan had made a formal announcement by Thursday morning, senior party leaders privately acknowledged that the transfer of power was imminent.
Questions about the timing of the resignation remained as Governor Thawarchand Gehlot was away from Bengaluru. He left for Indore late Wednesday night due to a family emergency and a confirmed return schedule was not announced as of Thursday morning, officials said.
But officials in the Chief Minister’s Office said Siddaramaiah plans to send his resignation to the governor’s office.
The closed-door meeting came amid growing indications within the Congress that the leadership has settled on Shivakumar as Siddaramaiah’s successor, although there has been no official confirmation.
At the heart of the internal negotiations has been Shivakumar’s long-standing claim that a power-sharing understanding had been reached after the Congress party’s victory in the 2023 Lok Sabha elections.
