

KOLAR: Even as the Congress high command has made it clear that there will be only one deputy chief minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet, members of the Scheduled Caste (Left) community have appealed to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, former AICC presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to make veteran Congress leader KH Muniyappa deputy CM. The party has already announced KPCC chief DK Shivakumar for that post.
Former chairman of Karnataka SC/ST Commission A Muniyappa told TNIE Muniyappa is the senior-most leader of the community which consists of 76 lakh people. In the interest of the people, the Congress's high command must make him Siddaramaiah’s deputy.
“A group of leaders have already reached New Delhi to submit a memorandum to the party high command. They will also highlight that six MLAs from SC left community have been elected to the Assembly on Congress tickets,” he said.
Meanwhile, Muniyappa’s supporters in Kolar district and his constituency Devanahalli are confident that the senior leader will be accommodated suitably. A source said the ex-Union minister was in New Delhi for the last four days and returned to Bengaluru to attend the CLP meeting.