Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah is likely to hold both the positions of Congress Legislature Party(CLP) leader and leader of the opposition in the state assembly, according to party sources.
A majority of Congress legislators are reportedly in favour of Mr Siddaramaiah holding the two positions and the party high command is learnt to have given its approval seeing how effective he was as opposition leader between 2008 and 2013 when there was a BJP government in the state.
The national leadership of the party also appears to believe that Mr Siddaramaiah is currently the only party leader who can take on the Yediyurappa government on all fronts, including flood management.
Although the names of former Deputy Chief Minister, Dr G Parameshwar, former Speaker, K.R. Ramesh Kumar, and former minister, Krishna Byregowda have been doing the rounds for the post of opposition leader in the assembly, Mr Siddaramaiah appears to have proved the most persuasive.
"There is no confusion about this. The high command has asked Mr Siddaramaiah to hold the two posts in the interest of the party's prospects should there be snap polls in Karnataka," said sources.
Meanwhile, at least five or six JD(S) legislators and quite a number of defeated JD(S) candidates in the 2018 Assembly polls are reportedly interested in joining the Congress.
Periyatpatna JD(S) MLA, Mahadev and Tumakuru MLA, S R Srinivas (Vasanna) are said to have held one round of talks already with Mr Siddaramaiah and are likely to join the Congress once he is officially declared opposition leader, according to sources. Prof R Rangappa, a close relative of JD(S) supremo, H D Deve Gowda too is interested in joining the Congress, they say.
