BENGALURU: The issue of change in leadership in the state is likely to resurface once again with senior MLAs, mostly associated with the Siddaramaiah camp, embarking on a two-day visit to New Delhi on April 12.
The team, led by Chief Whip in the Assembly Ashok Pattan, will comprise about 20 MLAs, who had met the CM recently. The team is planning to meet AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, and general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala in Delhi.
Expecting that the Congress high command will give its nod to Siddaramaiah to reshuffle his cabinet, the MLAs are lobbying hard to become ministers. They may also bat for the continuation of Siddaramaiah as CM in the interest of the party, an informed source told TNIE. The MLAs, who are expected to be part of the delegation, include TB Jayachandra, Beluru Gopalakrishna, T Raghumurthy, KM Shivalingegowda, K Shadakshari, BR Patil, Raju Kage, Laxman Savadi, AR Krishnamurthy, KY Nanjegowda, SN Narayanaswamy, Raghavendra Hitnal, SR Srinivas, Ramesh Bandisiddegowda, Subbareddy, G S Patil, among others, sources added. This development comes days after Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara had said that Siddaramaiah will complete his full term in office.
The Siddaramaiah camp, too, wants its leader to remain in the top post irrespective of the outcome of the Davanagere South and Bagalkot bypoll.
“Kerala elections are on April 9. After that, the Central leaders will be available in Delhi, and that is why the MLAs of the Siddaramaiah camp are heading to the national camp,” added sources.
Meanwhile, the members of the Shivakumar camp, including first-time MLAs led by Channagiri MLA Basavaraj Shivaganga, have also chalked out a plan to rekindle the change in CM issue, sources added. Chances of Deputy CM and KPCC chief DK Shivakumar visiting the high command soon cannot be ruled out, they added.
“The high command, CM and Deputy CM will take a call on the change in leadership... will you (media) not wait until April 9? What others speak about it (change in leadership) is irrelevant,” RDPR and IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge told reporters in Bengaluru on Wednesday.