<p>Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao clarified on Tuesday that the party high command had not asked him to continue in the post, refuting speculation to that effect. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Rao stepped down from the post owning responsibility for the party’s defeat in the December 2019 bypolls. The Congress high command, however, is yet to take a call on his resignation. The top brass is also sitting on the resignation of Siddaramaiah as the Leader of the Opposition and Congress Legislature Party (CLP)<br />leader, leading to a leadership crisis. </p>.<p class="bodytext">“There shouldn’t be further delay in the appointment,” Rao told reporters. “And till the high command decides, our leaders should not wash dirty linen in public by speaking about party affairs,” he said. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Rao also took potshots at the ruling BJP even as Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is under pressure to expand his Cabinet. “The Cabinet expansion is not just an internal BJP matter. It pertains to the state. Some departments need to be handled, works to be done, projects to be executed...that’s why it shouldn’t be delayed,” Rao said. </p>
<p>Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao clarified on Tuesday that the party high command had not asked him to continue in the post, refuting speculation to that effect. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Rao stepped down from the post owning responsibility for the party’s defeat in the December 2019 bypolls. The Congress high command, however, is yet to take a call on his resignation. The top brass is also sitting on the resignation of Siddaramaiah as the Leader of the Opposition and Congress Legislature Party (CLP)<br />leader, leading to a leadership crisis. </p>.<p class="bodytext">“There shouldn’t be further delay in the appointment,” Rao told reporters. “And till the high command decides, our leaders should not wash dirty linen in public by speaking about party affairs,” he said. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Rao also took potshots at the ruling BJP even as Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is under pressure to expand his Cabinet. “The Cabinet expansion is not just an internal BJP matter. It pertains to the state. Some departments need to be handled, works to be done, projects to be executed...that’s why it shouldn’t be delayed,” Rao said. </p>
