BENGALURU: Even as the Congress leaders RV Deshpande, Basavaraj Rayareddy and Shamanuru Shivashankarappa have thrown in their hat for the chief minister’s post, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar have adopted own strategies to counter the clamour. While a group of Siddaramaiah sympathisers wrote to Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, two staunch supporters of Shivakuma appealed to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge on the need to silence leaders who are issuing statements on alternative leaders for the CM’s post.
Siddaramaiah, who had not spoken about the burning issue, on Wednesday said, “When the post of chief minister is not vacant, the question of change does not arise. They ministers are saying that Siddaramaiah will continue as CM. There is no doubt that I will continue.”
Leaders close to Siddaramaiah, including HM Revanna, VS Ugrappa and CS Dwarakanath, have written to Rahul to rein in leaders who are issuing statements on change in the CM’s post. They stated that they want Siddaramaiah to complete his term of five years as there is no alternative leader to him. In the meantime, party MLC Dinesh Gooli Gowda and KPCC working president Manjunath Bhandari, who are staunch supporters of Shivakumar, have written to Kharge to initiate disciplinary action against those issuing statements on change in the CM post. “That is because they don’t want an alternative leader to emerge and expect only Shivakumar to become CM,” a political analyst said.
Siddaramaiah did not try to stop those issuing statements. He also did not reply to questions on PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi or Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara meeting high command leaders, especially Rahul. But sources suggested that they would not have met Rahul without the consent of Siddaramaiah. Meanwhile on Wednesday, Parameshwara’s supporters raised slogans in favour of him becoming CM at his house. But an embarrassed home minister berated them.