KPCC post: Siddaramaiah summoned to Delhi

Congress leader Siddaramaiah was summoned to Delhi by the high command on Sunday to discuss his resignation as leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) and to select a new president to Congress’ divided state unit.

Siddaramaiah is expected to meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary K C Venugopal on Tuesday to take a final call on who the next president of the state unit will be. Though names of several Congress leaders had sprung up during the past month, former minister and Vokkaliga leader D K Shivakumar is the front-runner for the post.

Meanwhile, speculations are that the high command will reject the resignation of Siddaramaiah as the party leadership is said to be keen on continuing him as CLP leader.

It can be recalled that several Congress leaders had thrown their hats into
the ring to be KPCC president after Dinesh Gundu Rao quit the post along with Siddaramaiah over party’s drubbing in the December 5 bypolls.

Senior Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry recently visited Bengaluru to seek the views of state Congress over the selection of KPCC president, and submitted a report to the party high command. Mistry had highlighted the differences within the KPCC over selection of new president and former deputy CM G Parameshwara was tasked with ensuring consensus among party ranks regarding the issue.

Apart from Shivakumar, several leaders such as K H Muniyappa and B K Hariprasad had reportedly lobbied for the post.

Siddaramaiah too, according to sources, had floated names such as M B Patil, Eshwar Khandre and Krishna Byre Gowda for the coveted post.

As high command was likely to pick a candidate backed by Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar had met the former chief minister recently seeking support for his elevation as KPCC president.