Will leave for Delhi, decision on CM left to high command, says Shivakumar

BENGALURU: Amid the exercise to choose a new chief minister, state Congress president D K Shivakumar reiterated that all the MLAs have entrusted the task to the party high command.

Addressing a press conference at his residence, he said, “I don’t have any numbers with me, whatever numbers we have is that of the Congress. When Sonia Gandhi had appointed me as KPCC president I had assured her, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge that my aim is to deliver Karnataka to the Congress party and I have achieved it”.

Shivakumar visited the Kadasiddeshwara Mutt at Nonavinakere in Tiptur taluk on account of his birthday, on Monday.

“At the Raipur convention, we decided that we will all work unitedly and deliver Karnataka to the Congress fold. I have kept my promise, the rest is left to the the high command. It is my birthday today, I will go to Kadasiddeshwara Ajjayyana Peetha mutt at Nonavinakere. Later on, I will leave for Delhi. The Congress high command has called me and Siddaramaiah to Delhi”, he added..

Declining to take questions from media persons, Shivakumar said, “I don’t want to answer any claims. I am a single man and I believe in one thing that a single man with courage becomes a majority. When all our MLAs left the party (2019 JD(S)-Cong coalition govt), I didn’t lose my heart. I do not want to disclose what has happened in the last five years. I will disclose it sometime in the future”.

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Shivakumar said, “Be bold when you are defeated, be magnanimous when you are victorious”. “When we lost the government after our 15 MLAs were went out of party, I do not lose the heart. I took up the responsibility of bringing the party back to power with courage. Today, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has a stake in the state. I will leave the decision to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi”, he added.