State Cong top brass in Delhi for crucial meet with high command

There seems to be no end to speculation about the appointment of the new state Congress chief. On Sunday, the speculation reached a new high with the party high command convening a meeting of select leaders from Karnataka in New Delhi on Monday.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara, KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao and Ministers D K Shivakumar and K J George boarded a special aircraft to the nation’s capital on Sunday evening.

Other leaders who have been invited for the meeting are: M Mallikarjun Kharge, M Veerappa Moily, M B Patil, R Roshan Baig, H K Patil among others, it is learnt.

Unsure of agenda
None in the party was sure of the agenda of the meeting. However, the guess is that the Delhi leaders may discuss whether a change in leadership in the state unit would be appropriate ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections.

It is to be seen whether the party would remove Parameshwara, a Dalit, to make way for a Lingayat or a Vokkaliga as the KPCC president. Parameshwara has completed six years in office.

Sources said the high command has received reports on the political situation in Karnataka and also the opinion on certain senior leaders who are in the race for the president’s post.

K C Venugopal, AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, had held review meetings last week in Bengaluru.
The four AICC secretaries, after their visits to various districts, have gathered information pertaining to the party and the government.

The outcome of the reports would be placed before the leaders from Karnataka at the meeting. Based on the reports, strategies to be planned for the elections would be discussed. 

The sources also said even Monday’s meeting is not a surprise development as a decision to hold it was taken by Venugopal when he was in Bengaluru last week.

He had also told the media that both Siddaramaiah and Parameshwara are working in unison.