Bengaluru: Karnataka state Congress president D.K. Shivakumar, continues to play hardball with the party high command as he remains steadfast in his demand to be made chief minister or remain out of the cabinet and government, two persons directly aware of the developments confirmed to ThePrint.
Unrelenting in his demand, the 61-year-old has claimed his eligibility for the top chair only after he delivered a thumping majority to the party in the 10 May assembly elections.
Shivakumar and former chief minister Siddaramaiah Tuesday met Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi. Kharge met both leaders separately.
“Shivakumar has demanded to be CM or be kept out of the government and cabinet,” said one of the two persons cited above, requesting anonymity.
This person, a close aide of Shivakumar, added that the state party chief has even threatened to resign as MLA and remain a party worker if not given the CM post. His brother, Congress MP D.K. Suresh, is reported to have made similar claims before the high command, this person said.
Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah are both in the national capital and their camps are claiming their respective leader is the ‘frontrunner’ in the race. With 135 out of 224 assembly seats won by the party, both leaders have claimed credit for the victory.
Siddaramaiah also met Kharge Tuesday in Delhi, right after Shivakumar left the national president’s residence.
Though the Congress had kept focus on local issues in the run up to the elections, even persuading its national leadership to align with this approach, the party has fallen back on Delhi to decide who will be the next CM of Karnataka.
The Congress party president is likely to make an announcement Wednesday.
No rush decisions
On Sunday, the Congress legislature party (CLP) in its first meeting after the elections, passed a single line resolution authorising its national president to appoint the next CLP.
However, Kharge has been unable to make a decision on his own so far as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, too, was part of the talks later Tuesday evening.
People aware of the developments add that Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah have both refused any proposal of power sharing to end the deadlock.
There were even reports that Shivakumar had asked Kharge to take up the post of CM. ThePrint could not independently verify this claim.
One member of the Siddaramaiah camp said that at least 90 MLAs have supported his claim to the top chair.
“I have done my duty. The Congress party is my mother, my temple. My general secretary has asked me to come alone and I am going alone,” Shivakumar told reporters in Bengaluru before he left for Delhi Tuesday morning.
The party high command is not rushing the decision and continues to deliberate on the possible repercussions of its actions to make either of the two contenders CM.
“We will decide the issue quickly because the longer we take, the more it will fester,” said one Congress legislator to ThePrint on 13 May.
Meanwhile leaders, like G. Parameshwara, have said that they will take up the responsibility of CM if the post is offered to them. Several leaders from the dominant Lingayat community have also demanded to be considered for the post. Some legislators of the Congress have already begun lobbying for cabinet berths, even specifying portfolios.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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