If the majority of the Congress MLAs want a Dalit chief minister, then the high command won’t go against this, veteran leader from the party and former CM of the state M Veerappa Moily told CNN-News18 in an exclusive conversation on Saturday.
With the assembly election results firmly in favour of the Congress, his statement adds to the curiosity around the only remaining ‘contest’ of interest: who will be the party’s chief ministerial choice? While there is a strong buzz in favour of former CM Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar’s name is also still doing the rounds.
The party high command cannot impose a chief ministerial candidate, Moily told CNN-News18. He also lauded Shivakumar who “worked without sleep for the last three years”.
Making a Dalit leader the Karnataka CM has been a much-deliberated issue within the Congress. Senior leaders such as G Parameshwara, who himself comes from the community, have rued that Dalits have not been given an opportunity to become the chief minister.
Parameshwara, set to be a six-time MLA following his victory from Koratagere on Saturday, earlier said that the party high command will decide on the next CM after winning the election, adding that given an opportunity, he is ready.
“We don’t appoint chief minister on the basis of one’s caste; whoever is capable in the given situation, whoever has the capability to fulfill the party’s mission and its principles, based on that, the CM will be chosen, not on the basis of whether someone is a Dalit or from other castes,” the former deputy chief minister said, responding to a question on the possibility of a Dalit CM if the Congress comes to power.
Asked about his chief ministerial aspiration, he said: “Why am I doing politics? To come to power…everyone has aspirations, about 10 people have aspirations in our party, I’m also one among them.”
Apart from apparent frontrunners Siddaramaiah, who is from the Kuruba caste, and Shivakumar, who is a Vokkaliga leader, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s name has also come up in discussions within the party amid speculation that a Dalit CM could be picked in Karnataka ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Dalits form around 17% of Karnataka’s population.
Moily was recently also in the news over his statement on the Congress’s promise. He said there’s no question of outlawing the outfit if it plays by the rule book and behaves itself, even as his party’s manifesto proposing a ban came under fire from the BJP during campaigning for the Karnataka polls.
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