Congress leader Siddaramaiah has been elected as the party's legislature chief and is set to be the next chief minister of Karnataka.

Congress leader Siddaramaiah has been elected as the party's legislature chief and is set to be the next chief minister of Karnataka.

At a secret ballot held earlier today, Siddaramaiah polled 80 votes while Mallikarjuna Kharge polled 40.

Secret balloting route was adopted by the Congress to select the new chief minister in Karnataka, and Siddaramaiah was always the front runner.

Earlier today at a meeting convened by the party to elicit the view of the new legislators on chief minister’s post, Siddaramaiah moved a resolution requesting that the CLP leadership be left to the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

It was seconded by HK Patil, Roshan Baig, Shyamanur Shivashankarappa and DK Shivakumar.

The central leadership, however, asked the legislators to express their choice, in a secret ballot, Shivakumar told reporters in the midst of the exercise.

Union Labour and Employment Minister M Mallikarjuna Kharge was said to be in a straight fight with Siddaramaiah for the coveted post.

Earlier, the four-member team of AICC observers, comprising Defence minister AK Antony, Congress General Secretary in-charge of the state Madhusudan Mistri, Luizinho Faleiro, who was Karnataka’s candidates screening committee chairman, and Union Minister Jitendra Singh, congratulated the newly elected Congress MLAs.

The Congress earlier this week swept to power with a comfortable majority of 121 MLAs in the 224-member House, dethroning the BJP which fared miserably winning only 40 seats, down by 70 compared to the 2008 poll.

With PTI inputs