Congress high command has 'sense of timing' to resolve Karnataka power tussle: Priyank Kharge

Karnataka Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Priyank Kharge on Friday said the Congress high command possesses the sense of timing to resolve the intensifying "power tussle" between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar.

He said the 130-year-old party would intervene at the right time.

Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, the Minister said Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have agreed to travel to Delhi for a meeting when summoned by the party high command.

"Nobody has given any official invitation or statement on the meeting in New Delhi. The Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister have said that they will go to Delhi if they are invited by the Congress president or AICC general secretary and Karnataka in charge Randeep Singh Surjewala. Let the invitation come from Delhi, then only it will be decided," Kharge, who is Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's son, said.

As the Congress government in Karnataka completed the halfway mark of its five-year tenure on November 20, the power tussle within the party has intensified over a possible change of guard in the State, with a section claiming that this is as per the rumoured "power-sharing" agreement between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar in 2023.

Asked about the increasing confusion, Kharge said, "The high command has the sense of timing. It will take a call, keeping in mind the right time."

He urged people not to speculate further, and said the high command would intervene whenever necessary.