BENGALURU: Ahead of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra reaching Karnataka, ‘original’ Congress leaders and the ‘imports’ are shadow-boxing, with allegations that one camp is trying to corner Opposition leader Siddaramaiah.
The latest flashpoint was ‘miscommunication’ within the party unit. On Tuesday evening, a meeting of around 15 former ministers was called in a room at a private hotel, just before the scheduled Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting was to start in the hall.
When Siddarmaiah entered, KPCC working president Salim Ahmed guided him to the room where AICC general secretary Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala and KPCC president D K Shivakumar were already present.
As he had not been intimated about the meeting, Siddarmaiah got annoyed and refused to participate, and the video went viral. Saleem and Congress chief whip Ajay Singh managed to calm down Siddaramaiah and convinced him to attend the meeting. Party functionaries attributed it to ‘miscommunication’ as the intimation reached Siddaramaiah late, because he was on a tour outside Bengaluru. Recently, Siddaramaiah’s picture did not feature on buntings at a meeting Shivakumar held in Raichur recently, and sparked a controversy.