Away from a birthday celebration and a stomach bug that may or may not be interconnected, the Congress central leadership is rigorously going through a democratic process to elect the Karnataka leader on the basis of the views of the newly elected MLAs.

The central observers on Monday evening submitted their report to party president Mallikarjun Kharge after ascertaining the views of the 135 MLAs last night in Bangalore and amid clear indications of majority support for P.C. Siddaramaiah to be the next chief minister of Karnataka.

The party’s general-secretary-in-charge, Randeep Surjewala, said that broader consultations, including with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, would be held on Tuesday before announcing the name.

While Siddaramaiah travelled to Delhi, Shivakumar, who turned 61 on Monday and celebrated by meeting supporters in Bangalore, cited a stomach ailment in the evening to postpone his trip to the national capital.

Shivakumar, the Karnataka Congress president, has not publicly dropped any hint that he is backing off from the race for the chief minister’s post.

His supporters had earlier said they expected the party to name him the Congress legislature party leader as a birthday gift. Shivakumar had told reporters in Bangalore earlier in the day that it was up to the high command whether it should give him a “birthday gift”.

“Whether the high command will give a (birthday) gift or not, the people of Karnataka have expressed faith in me and our workers. Under my leadership, after Smt Sonia Gandhi appointed me as president with trust, they gave a massive mandate,” he said.

Although the central observers — Sushil Kumar Shinde, Jitendra Singh and Deepak Babaria — maintained secrecy, sources revealed that the majority of the MLAs favoured Siddaramaiah.

The central leadership is, however, determined not to ignore Shivakumar, who has played a stellar role as state unit chief, and therefore wants to settle the matter amicably, extracting consent from both leaders.

The Congress faces serious trouble in Rajasthan where Sachin Pilot has begun a second revolt. One of the ministers loyal to him on Monday described the Ashok Gehlot government as more corrupt than the BJP’s Karnataka government that had earned the infamy of the “40 per cent commission” moniker.

The minister said this at a rally held by Pilot, asking him to correct the alignment of the Gehlot government on the issue of corruption.

Ending his five-day Jan Sangharsh Yatra near Jaipur, Pilot threatened a statewide movement if his three demands were not met by month-end.

Although his demands are about investigations into corruption by the Vasundhara Raje government and paper leaks, the target is obviously the Gehlot government. Pilot is sending out a message that the Congress government has failed in its duty to tackle these problems effectively.

Pilot wants the post of chief minister although the state is barely six months from an election. The Congress leadership doesn’t want a similar situation in Karnataka, from which it has great expectations in respect of the 2024 parliamentary elections.

In Bangalore, asked whether Karnataka was going the Rajasthan way where Gehlot and Pilot are at loggerheads, Shivakumar said: “I don’t want to say anything.”

“I am a single man, I believe in one thing. A single man with courage makes a majority. I proved it,” he said in English, underlining how he had led from the front.

Shivakumar said he would disclose later what he had faced over the past five years. “I don’t want to disclose all that has happened in the last five years. In the future, at the right time, I will disclose it,” he said.

He recalled how he had assumed the responsibility to work for the party after several MLAs had defected to the BJP in 2019, when horse-trading brought down the Janata Dal Secular-Congress coalition government.

“When all the MLAs left I didn’t lose my heart. I took up the responsibility with courage,” he said.

A party source said Shivakumar had not been keen when, on Sunday, he was offered a 50:50 split over the five-year term.

“Shivakumar said he would either be a full-time chief minister for five years or continue as party president without being part of the state cabinet,” the source said.

The detailed exercise in Karnataka is aimed at ensuring a democratic selection without causing any hurt feelings. The veteran Siddaramaiah, 76, has announced that this is his last term and that he will not take up any post after 80.

Party communications chief Jairam Ramesh stressed the sanctity of the process by tweeting on Sunday night: “All newly elected MLAs in Karnataka met tonight in Bengaluru and authorised Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to appoint the leader of the Congress Legislature Party. Kharge has appointed three senior observers who will meet with all newly elected MLAs and obtain their views in the strictest confidentiality.”

Ramesh added: “This process will be over very soon. Thereafter, the observers will submit their report to the Congress president who will then decide. This is inner-party democracy at its best. This is the Congress way of arriving at a consensus giving confidence to all that they have been heard. The new CongressGovernment in Karnataka that will take over soon will be a STAR — Sensitive, Transparent, Accountable & Responsive.”