Could The Battle Between Siddaramaiah And Shivakumar End In A Term Sharing Arrangement?

The Congress put up a great show in Karnataka and won 136 of the 224 seats, where the magic number is 113.

The BJP on the other hand bagged just 65 seats, down from 104 when compared to the previous elections. The Karnataka verdict is seen as a massive boost for the Congress.

Now all eyes are on who the next chief minister of Karnataka would be. Siddaramaiah is a front-runner. He rose from the ranks of local politics before he made his entry into the Janata Party, Janata Dal, before finally joining the Congress in 2005. Prior to this, he had already held senior portfolios in the state government, including finance and deputy chief minister.

D K Shivakumar the other front-runner is the state Congress chief. He has been a Congressman since the beginning of his career in politics. He is battle-hardened and is a known troubleshooter. He shot to prominence when he ensured that following days of resort politics, Ahmed Patel was elected as a Rajya Sabha member.

Sources say that Siddaramaiah remains the popular choice over Shivakumar. Both leaders have had to face several hardships both externally and internally before they steered their party to an impressive majority. The biggest challenge for both of them was to keep their disagreements at bay. This was by no way an easy task as the entire state is debating as to who will pip whom to the top post.

Their bonhomie stuck through the campaign and it is now just a matter of hours before it is known who will get the top job.

While making his point that Shivakumar was the architect of the victory, Siddaramaiah however mentioned that this would be his last election. I will retire from electoral politics after this term, he said, following the big Congress win.

Shivakumar was however emotional and said that he had managed to deliver. "I had promised the top leadership that I will deliver the state to them and I have managed to do that," he said.

Now on the question of who gets the top billing both leaders have said that the party will decide. Siddaramaiah has an advantage due to his seniority and age. The fact that he has said that he would retire post this term is one factor that could go in his favour.

There is also talk within Congress circles that as an arrangement, both leaders could share terms of 2.5 years each. All will be known at the evening meeting of the Congress Legislature Party or CLP.