Karnataka DyCM D K Shivakumar.
Credit: DH Photo
New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, also the state Congress president, on Tuesday refused to comment on former minister K N Rajanna’s letter to top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi ‘over lapses in appointing booth-level agents in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections’.
“I am here on official work to meet union ministers and discuss pending issues of my departments. I don’t want to answer questions on politics,” he told reporters here.
Shivakumar said he had no plans to meet party leaders during his two-day stay in the national capital.
Separately, senior Congress leader B K Hariprasad told reporters that a committee headed by senior Congress leader and party’s Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry had already discussed reasons for the Congress’ poor performance in the last Lok Sabha elections. “Party leaders from Karnataka also gave statements before the Mistry panel. It knows the reasons. The party’s top brass is seized of the matter,” he said.
The senior leader said the appointment of booth-level agents for voters’ list verification and ‘vote chori’ were two different issues.
Hariprasad held a meeting with Shivakumar, but said it had nothing to do with politics. “Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has said that the leadership issue is a local matter and that state leaders will resolve it among themselves. So, there should be an end to all confusion. All leaders should abide by Kharge’s statement,” he said.