Power tussle: DK Shivakumar reaches out to CM loyalist Satish Jarkiholi in key late-night meet

Bengaluru: A late-night, closed-door meeting between rivals Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi has turned up the heat in the ongoing leadership tussle in the governing Congress.

Satish is a known loyalist of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Plus, Satish and Shivakumar have had political differences for a while now.

Given this background, Satish’s meeting with Shivakumar, who is seeking to replace Siddaramaiah, created much buzz in political circles.

Shivakumar clarified Wednesday that he met Satish to discuss “political strategy and roadmap” to ensure Congress retained power in the 2028 Assembly election.

However, in the late Tuesday night meeting that spilled well into the early hours of Wednesday, Shivakumar sought Satish’s support for his chief ministerial ambition, sources said. It is also said that Shivakumar offered to support the idea of Satish taking over from him as the Karnataka Congress president.

Satish is learnt to have hedged his support to Shivakumar by waiting for the Congress high command to decide on whether or not Siddarmaiah will continue. Until then, Satish said he would continue to back the incumbent Siddaramaiah, sources said.

Both of them agreed on the need to resolve their differences keeping the 2028 Assembly and 2029 Lok Sabha polls in mind, sources said.

On Wednesday, Satish had a luncheon with some Congress lawmakers, including Asif Sait (Belgaum Uttar), Prakash Koliwad (Ranebennur), JN Ganesh (Kampli), Vishwas Vaidya (Saundatti Yellamma) and Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan (Shiggaon).

Shivakumar played down his meeting with Satish. “What’s wrong? He’s my colleague and a senior party leader,” he said. “We want to protect all our MLAs. We also want to create a parallel party force. That's what we discussed.”

Shivakumar also pointed out that he had meetings with Housing Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan and IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge. “I’m discussing political strategy to strengthen the party. We want to see Rahul Gandhi become the prime minister in 2029,” he said, adding that there was no was no confusion in the party.

Asked if he had received any message from Rahul Gandhi, Shivakumar said: "I can't disclose it."

Meanwhile, Satish clarified that his stance has not changed. “My meeting with Shivakumar was similar to those he has had with other leaders,” he said. “I harbour no anger against Shivakumar,” he said.

“Even if there was anger, it was temporary.”