Late-night parleys in Delhi as Karnataka imbroglio continues

Senior Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala were on Wednesday night burning the midnight oil to find a solution to the Karnataka imbroglio by holding a series of meetings to find a compromise between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar who were locked in a bitter battle for the post of Chief Minister.

While the meetings during the day did not lead to a solution with the Congress making it clear that it could take a day or two, a fresh attempt was made in the late evening with Shivakumar driving to Surjewala’s residence for a meeting.

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Though what transpired in the meeting was not known, there were indications that it was part of a series of meetings planned in the late hours to break the impasse when Surjewala went to meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Venugopal also later joined this meeting though senior Karnataka Congress leader MB Patil also held a meeting with Kharge.

This meeting was followed by Siddaramaiah going to Venugopal’s residence where Surjewala was also present. Both the General Secretaries are learnt to have briefed Siddaramaiah about their latest discussions with Shivakumar and Kharge.

Amid speculation about a compromise being worked out before a possible announcement on Thursday, Shivakumar reached Venugopal’s residence soon after Siddaramaiah left.

There was no official word about the deliberations between the leaders.