High command cold to KPCC chief's plea for deputy CM post

With the Congress high command rejecting Karnataka Pradesh Congress President G Parameshwara's plea for making him deputy chief minister in Siddaramaiah-led government, the Dalit leader is now lobbying for a second term in the current post.

Parameshwara, who tried hard to become deputy chief minister, got cold response from the party high command on Monday as the leaders categorically said that there was no plan to create such a post in Karnataka.

With Congress ruling the state without the help of any other political parties, there is no need to create a deputy chief minister’s post, the party top brass is learnt to have told him, sources in the party told Deccan Herald. Besides, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also reportedly opposed creating the post, saying it would lead to another power centre within the government. However the chief minister agreed to induct Parameshwara as Cabinet minister. 

However, Parameshwara is said to be in a dilemma on whether or not to join the government. It is learnt that some of his followers are pressuring him to continue as KPCC president for second term, instead of joining the Siddaramaiah Cabinet as a minister.

“Instead of joining the government and become a minister, it is better to continue as KPCC president which is considered most powerful post,” one of his close aides said. However, the party high command did not take any call on this issue. Though the party earlier agreed to induct him as minister, there has been no decision on his plea to continue him in the current position.

Speaking to reporters, Parameshwara expressed his intention to continue as KPCC president. “I am not after any post. If the party asks me to join the government I am ready. I am also prepared to continue in the current post, if I am asked to do so,” he said.

Earlier precedence
He hastened to add that the PCC presidents had been given a second term in several instances earlier. In one instance, a PCC president served continuously for nine years, he said. Parameshwara’s five-year term as KPCC president will end this month and the party’s State unit has organised a rally in Bengaluru on October 30. He said that the rally was not a show of his strength, but that of his party.