Decision on Karnataka CM will be taken by party high command: Mallikarjun Kharge

NEW DELHI: After Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asserted to sacrifice his seat for a Dalit, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday said that the decision on such matter will be taken by the party high command.

He further said that the matter is being racked up to create differences in the party.

"This issue has been created in media to create differences between us. We are clear that high command will decide on it. It's just a matter of 12 hours," Kharge said.

Earlier on May 13, Siddaramaiah said that he is ready to sacrifice his chief ministerial post for a Dalit.

"I am ready to sacrifice Chief Minister's post for a Dalit," he said.

Karnataka Congress has a strong presence of Dalit leaders, foremost among whom are Mallikarjun Kharge and G Parameshwara.

As voting in most of the places in Karnataka came to an end on Saturday evening, the exit polls' predictions have not ended curiosity but in fact, increased it with their mixed predictions.

Some psephologists have said the Congress will emerge as a single largest party; some gave the single largest party tag to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Most exit polls have predicted that former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda led Janata Dal (Secular) [JD (S)] will be a Kingmaker as there will be a hung assembly.

On a related note, the Karnataka Assembly has 224 seats and a party or an alliance needs 113-seats to form the government.

A total of 2,654 candidates, including 216 women candidates were in the fray for the assembly elections this year.

The Congress had won 122 seats and the BJP 40 seats in the last Karnataka Assembly election in 2013.