NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked both Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar to come to Delhi to put an end to chief minister post buzz. However, no date is fixed for their Delhi visit.
Both raised the issue with Rahul, who was in Karnataka on Tuesday, sought clarity from him on the high command’s plans to put an end to speculation. The chief minister also sought a cabinet reshuffle.
Rahul reached Mysuru on Tuesday on way to Ootu in Tamil Nadu to attend a private event ahead of Pongal.
On his way back to Delhi, Shivakumar saw him off at the airport. Visuals of a conversation between Shivakumar, also the state Congress chief, and Gandhi at the airport have now sparked a buzz.
A statement from Shivakumar’s office said: “Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi held discussions with Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC President DK Shivakumar at the Mysuru airport Tuesday evening. The meeting took place when Rahul Gandhi arrived in Mysuru from Tamil Nadu and before he departed for Delhi.”
Shivakumar told the media, “I am the Congress president and he’s the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, we cannot tell u everything we discuss, you people are unnecessarily creating issues by speculating what was spoken, there was no message from him, he has told us to good work, we informed him about MNREGA and how we plan to take it up.”
This comes amid rumours that the Congress high command may call both leaders to Delhi after Sankranti to discuss the leadership issue.
Siddaramaiah, meanwhile, told the media that there is no confusion in the party. “What speculations? It’s only media speculations. You are the ones creating speculations; the raising of these questions itself is baseless. Where is the confusion in the party? There is no development as such,” he said.
Sources, however, said the Chief Minister’s camp is keeping a close eye on the developments.
This ongoing unrest goes back to the 2023 election result in which Congress scored a thumping win. At the time, Shivakumar was considered a strong contender for the top post for his role in the Congress win in the state. Eventually, the Congress leadership managed to convince him to settle for the Deputy Chief Minister and state party chief posts. Some reports had then claimed that an agreement of rotational chief ministership had been reached, but this was never confirmed.
Picture credit social media
