BENGALURU: With the Enforcement Directorate extending Congress leader DK Shivakumar’s custody up to September 17, there is talk that he may be out of the race for a top post in the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, which is in for a revamp. Shivakumar, who is the high command’s favourite for a leadership post, will have to wait it out. With the race for the posts of KPCC president and opposition leader hotting up, sources said the Congress is getting ready to make an announcement soon.
The leaders in the reckoning are Siddaramaiah, HK Patil and G Parameshwara, though the clear favourite is Shivakumar. But interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi may not take a risk by naming Shivakumar for either of the posts just yet.
Sonia, who spoke to Congress MP DK Suresh, Shivakumar’s brother, at her residence, assured him that the Congress will back the beleagured leader, but until he is out of custody, the party will not be able to suitably accommodate him. Congress has stoutly maintained that Shivakumar’s case is nothing but vendetta.
Said one Congress leader, “The Congress would like to gain from the sympathy and support building up for Shivakumar, and it will help consolidate their Vokkaliga support base. It serves the Congress to project a Vokkaliga leader now.”
“There have been several rounds of meetings and lobbying is intense, but these leaders could be ‘peace time generals’ and could be changed at the time of elections,” said a senior Congress leader. “When general elections are around the corner, the Congress could bring in their ‘wartime generals’. For now, the leaders will have to contend with the upcoming bypolls.”
The other leaders under consideration are former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (backward Kuruba) who is also interim opposition leader, HK Patil (Lingayat), who was opposition leader from 1994 to 1999, when the Janata Dal government under Deve Gowda and JH Patel was in power, and former Deputy CM G Parameshwara (Dalit).