New Delhi: Top Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, held a closed-door meeting Tuesday afternoon as the race to the chief minister’s chair in Karnataka intensified between rival aspirants Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar.
Gandhi discussed government formation with party president Mallikarjun Kharge – General Secretary Randeep Surjewala and several newly-elected MLAs were also present – while the state’s two top leaders waited to be called.
Former chief minister Siddaramaih arrived in Delhi on Monday, and met the leadership in the Lodhi hotel.
Congress party chief Shivakumar, who rang in his birthday on Monday, stayed back in Bengaluru citing a stomach infection. He arrived Tuesday afternoon.
Before he left Bengaluru, Shivakumar said he would not resort to “backstabbing or blackmail” regardless of whatever decision the high command took.
He told news agency ANI: “If the party wants they can give me the responsibility… Ours is a united house, our number is 135. I don’t want to divide anyone here. Whether they like me or not, I am a responsible man. I will not backstab and I will not blackmail.”
The Congress has won 135 seats in the recently-held elections to the 224-member Karnataka assembly as the results were declared Saturday.
On Sunday night, the party’s legislative party met in Bengaluru and passed a one-line resolution empowering Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge to pick their head.
The next day, the party’s central observers briefed Mallikarjun Kharge on the views of the newly-elected MLAs.
Also read: PM Modi must worry. Karnataka is the latest sign of a deepening crisis ahead of 2024 LS polls