Siddaramaiah appointed Karnataka Assembly's Leader of Opposition

After several meetings, the Karnataka Congress, on Wednesday, has finally picked their CLP leader and former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah as the Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, according to ANI. Also, SR Patil has been appointed as Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council. This appointment comes just in time as the winter session of the Assembly is set to commence on Thursday. There had been no clarity as such regarding LOP till morning.

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Siddaramaiah - Karnataka assembly's new LOP

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Race for Leader of Opposition

Meanwhile, since BS Yediyurappa has taken over as the Chief Minister of Karnataka in July, following the fall of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, the post of the leader of the opposition has been vacant. With Congress being the principal opposition party in the assembly, it will choose the LOP. According to reports, the fight for the position has led to an infight among the members of the party. Party General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry was entrusted with the collection of recommendations of 63 senior leaders which included MLAs, MPs, MLCs, and even former Ministers.

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Siddaramaiah likely to be LOP

Republic had accessed a list of leaders consulted by Mistry. In the list, 2 MLAs — Byrathi Suresh and Zameer Ahmed — have a letter signed by 52 Congress MLAs supporting Siddaramaiah to be the Leader of Opposition. In opposition to this move, senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha MP H Hanumanthappa on Sunday sat on a silent protest in front of the Congress office in Bengaluru. According to him, Congress leaders should stop "groupism" for the betterment of the country. Karnataka Congress is already in turmoil with the biggest by-polls in 15 constituencies scheduled on December 5.

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