A day after senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge indicated that current Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah may not be the automatic choice of the party for state’s top job if it wins the May 12 assembly polls, the latter said on Wednesday that he remains the frontrunner for the post. In an exclusive interview to Smita Prakash, Editor, ANI, the Congress strongman in Karnataka said that since the party is fighting the polls under his leadership and it makes him a natural frontrunner. The assembly elections are just 17 days away and both the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are locked in an interesting yet aggressive political battle to establish their presence in this south Indian state. 
Siddaramaiah expressed confidence that the Congress will win the elections on the basis of the good performance put in by his government over the previous five years, and added that the people of the state are “happy” with the state government’s performance. On being asked about the challenge that he faces from the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular, he described the BJP as a communal party and Prime Minister Modi as someone leading that outfit at the national level. “Modi is there at the national level, but BJP is a communal party, whether at a national or state level.