NEW DELHI: Days after winning the Karnataka Assembly Election, the Congress is expected to name the state's new chief minister amid intense political lobbying. Former chief minister Siddaramaiah and state party leader DK Shivakumar are candidates. 

Despite the fact that Congress won a resounding victory in the Karnataka assembly elections, the race for the chief minister is still hotly contested. One of the two candidates for the position, Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar, is set to fly into Delhi later on Tuesday in anticipation of a party announcement.

The Karnataka Chief Minister's identity remains a mystery because the Congress party is undecided as to whether to hand the position to Siddaramaiah or DK Shivakumar. Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Congress, has been tasked by the grand-old party to select one of them to fill the position of CM.

Kharge, the veteran leader in Karnataka, may announce the identity of the CM today. The battle to become the next chief minister of Karnataka has raged on for the past three days, as both candidates contributed significantly to the Congress party's crushing victory in the most recent elections, which saw it win 135 of the 224 assembly seats, handily defeating its rival BJP.

While Shivakumar played hardball, Siddaramaiah emerged as the front-runner after learning that the majority of the newly elected MLAs had selected him as their preference.  The Congress politician postponed his journey on Monday due to a stomach ailment, but is now scheduled to travel to New Delhi today. On his behalf, yesterday, his brother D K Suresh met with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in the capital. 

The state leadership and its contributions to the party's campaign will be scrutinised critically as the BJP starts to assess its huge electoral loss in Karnataka and what caused it.

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