BENGALURU: The spat between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s coterie of ministers and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar continued on Monday. Cooperation Minister KN Rajanna, a Siddaramaiah loyalist, hit back at Shivakumar, who had asked party leaders not to misuse the chief minister’s name.
“I have not misused anyone’s name. It is a fact that he (Shivakumar) misuses the AICC name all the time and he should not do it for everything,” Rajanna told reporters.
Later interacting with the media, Shivakumar refused to reply to Rajanna, saying, “I don’t want to comment on it now. I am off to a party event in Kerala. After that I am heading to Rajasthan to attend the ministers’ meeting. I will comment once I am back.”
But Shivakumar’s brother-in-law and Kunigal MLA Dr HD Ranganath said Rajanna, being a senior leader, should not air his opinions publicly. “If he has any issue he can raise it with the high command,” he added.
Rajanna said, “I have not misused Siddaramaiah’s name. Have I misused his name and built four houses each in Sadashiva Nagar, Dollars’ Colony, or in my place Tumakuru? I don’t need to use his name. It is not an accusation that he (DKS) is misusing the name of AICC. It is a fact.”
Rajanna said he does not need lessons from anyone. “I have worked for the party for 50 years. I will speak about things that will have a good, not bad, effect,” he claimed.
Rajanna said he is not stubborn about Siddaramaiah completing his full term as chief minister. “Full term, short term is all the high command’s decision as Siddaramaiah said in the CLP meeting,” he said.
“As the high command itself said Shivakumar will continue as KPCC president till the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, we have asked for a change. It would have helped in the Lok Sabha elections if more DCM posts had been created. We will not ask for it now as there is no additional crown on the head of the position of DCM,” he said.
He attacked Shivakumar’s loyalist and Rajya Sabha member GC Chandrashekar, who is also in the run for KPCC president’s post. Chandrashekar had reportedly warned Rajanna about the high command keenly watching his statements. “If he has become the working president of KPCC, does he have two horns? Those who are sent to the Rajya Sabha and Council should have the capacity to fetch votes for the party. But Chandrashekar is a liability. What is his background? He got 258 votes in the Bengaluru corporation election,” he said.
Rajanna said he met AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretaries KC Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala in New Delhi recently and apprised them of political developments in the state. “I met the high command and said what I had to say. We are not holding conventions against anyone. We are organising the party and holding a convention at an appropriate time to gain political mileage. We will call the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Kharge for the convention of oppressed classes,” he said.