Keen to avoid repeat of fiasco, Cong moves DK Shivakumar to Goa ahead of poll results

Shivakumar is regarded as a master strategist and seen as a person who can handle tricky situations for the party

Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar rushed to Goa on Tuesday evening following reports that the single-phase election there may result in a hung assembly. Shivakumar left for Goa on a special flight on the directions of the Congress high command, sources close to him said.

Goa could see a cliffhanger of a contest with a likely hung Assembly, as four exit polls gave an edge to the BJP although it was not crossing the mark of 21 with the two in a neck and neck race.

The Congress in Goa is managed by party general secretary Dinesh Gundu Rao, a former Karnataka Congress president. Goa voted in the single-phase on February 14. The halfway mark in the 40-member assembly is 21.

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Shivakumar will camp in Goa for at least three days and the party is expected to depend on him to safeguard the party’s MLAs from any poaching attempts—a rodeo that isn’t his first.

Shivakumar became notable as the Congress’ go-to man in 2002. The then Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh sought the help of his Karnataka counterpart S M Krishna to safeguard the party’s MLAs. Krishna entrusted the job to Shivakumar, who kept the MLAs safe in a Bidadi resort.

In 2017, Shivakumar safeguarded 44 Gujarat MLAs in the same resort, even as he faced I-T raids. He did the same for Congress-JD(S) after the 2018 Karnataka Assembly polls threw up a fractured mandate.

When MLAs resigned in 2019, Shivakumar was the first responder, but he could do little.

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