TUMAKURU: Former minister and senior Congress leader T B Jayachandra is the latest addition to the long list of aspirants to the post of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president. He joins the bandwagon of Dinesh Gundu Rao, D K Shivakumar, H K Patil, M B Patil, B K Hariprasad, and
K H Muniyappa, who are lobbying for the top post.
The 68-year-old Congressman — who lost his Sira seat to JD(S) in the recent Assembly election — told presspersons here on Saturday that he has served the party for decades and aspires to be the KPCC chief. He also intends to meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi in this regard soon. Jayachandra was one of the ministers in the Siddaramaiah cabinet who failed to retain his seat this election.
“I joined Congress at a very young age... got elected to the Assembly very early in life and have worked for the party tirelessly for years,” Jayachandra said. He claimed that he was ready to take on any responsibility that the party gives him. Jayachandra, who had lobbied for his son Santosh and got him a ticket from Chikkanayakanahalli, failed to ensure a victory causing a loss of two seats to the Congress.
Jayachandra, who is from current KPCC chief and DyCM Dr G Parameshwara’s home district Tumakuru, reiterated the need for strengthening the party and expressed confidence that he will be able to pull it off. Congress has already accommodated two ministers from Tumakuru, including Parameshwara and JD(S) has one minister from Tumakuru, taking the total number of representatives from the district to three in the Cabinet.
“As a minister, I have solved many issues that were thrown at the Siddaramaiah government and the Congress. I have held discussions with Parameshwara, Siddaramaiah and K C Venugopal and will meet Rahul and Sonia Gandhi shortly,” he said.Speaking about the dissidence in the party, he said the government hadn’t taken off very well, but now things were better with party leaders being pacified.
Not interested in state Cong chief position, says Siddu
Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said he is not interested in the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president’s post. “I am not interested in it. People of the state have rejected our government and have not accepted our programmes. I have accepted the verdict,” he told reporters. While Siddaramaiah made it clear that he is not interested in KPCC president’s post, there
seems to be an intense competition for the post. KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao seems to have an edge over others, while names of All India Conrgess Committee general secretary B K Hariprasad,
MP K H Muniyappa and even Siddaramaiah are being floated as possible choices to succeed
G Parameshwara, who has remained KPCC president for a record eight years now. Siddaramaiah is the leader of the Congress Legislature Party and also coalition coordination committee formed
to ensure smooth functioning of the JD (S)-Congress state government.