BENGALURU: Congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah on Friday met state party chief D K Shivakumar here amid reports of a leadership tussle in the Karnataka Congress.
As Karnataka gets ready for the Assembly elections next year, the Congress, which is hoping to return to power, is in a tough spot as the party is facing factionalism with many leaders wanting to be projected as the party’s chief ministerial candidate leaving the workers confused.
Though Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have clarified several times that they are together and there is no confusion, MLAs like Zameer Ahmed Khan and K Raghavendra Hitnal and many others have backed Siddaramaiah as the party’s CM candidate.
Shivakumar had earlier said, “The party is more important than a person.” According to him, seniors like Dalit leader Dr G Parameshwara, who led Congress successfully for eight years in Karnataka, H K Patil, the present National General secretary and Maharastra in-charge are also on the ‘potential CM candidate’ list.
Siddaramaiah’s followers are planning to observe ‘Siddaramothsava’, which is nothing but confirming to people and party workers that Siddaramaiah will be the next CM candidate once again. Rahul Gandhi is also likely to participate in the event, he said.
Meanwhile, after long deliberations and discussions with the Karnataka leaders in Delhi, the Congress party is all set to move with the collective efforts to win the upcoming Karnataka assembly polls.
According to sources, one of the factions of state leadership wants the party not to declare a Chief Ministerial candidate and go with the collective leadership in the upcoming polls.
The next Karnataka Legislative Assembly election is scheduled to be held in or before May 2023 to elect all 224 members of the state’s Legislative Assembly. (ANI)