On Thursday, DK Shivakumar agreed to the terms that Siddaramaiah will serve as chief minister and DK Shivakumar as his sole deputy, ending the deadlock in Karnataka over the CM contest between the two candidates. Rounds of negotiations led to the accord, but DK Shivakumar claimed on Thursday that Rahul Gandhi ultimately contacted him and urged cooperation. “Everything is fine, everything will work out fine, everything is fine. We decided in a single sentence to follow the high command’s directives. Finally, Rahul Gandhi called and told me that we all needed to cooperate, Shivakumar stated.
“Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called us and gave this diktat. We all have accepted, whatever the formula has been generated,” Shivakumar added.
To promote their campaign for CM, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar arrived in Delhi on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. On Tuesday, they each had separate meetings with Mallikarjun Kharge while Rahul Gandhi discussed the matter with Kharje, KC Venugopal, and Randeep Singh Surjewala. Siddarmaiah and DK Shivakumar met Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday. Since Sonia Gandhi appointed him head of the state party unit, DK Shivakumar sought her view on the topic. Sonia Gandhi, who is on vacation in Shimla, was in conversation with DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah. They were directed to communicate with Rahul and Kharge by Sonia Gandhi.
At a late-night meeting on Wednesday, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar agreed that the chief minister and party leader roles would be shared, although DK On Thursday, Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah had breakfast together at KC Venugopal’s house. They then drove to Kharge’s house in the same vehicle, with Venugopal and Surjewala joining them. According to reports, Shivakumar believed that he still had time to become a chief minister in the future because of his age. Before the election, Siddaramaiah, 75, declared it to be his final.
In recent days, the power struggle pitted the BJP against the Congress, with the BJP challenging the party’s internal strife. In response, the Congress questioned whether the BJP had located a leader of the opposition in Karnataka. “We are proud to be spoilt for choice – BJP should instead introspect why the 6.5 crore Kannadigas have humiliatingly rejected them and PM Modi,” Supriya Shrinate said.
