BENGALURU: Deputy CM DK Shivakumar on Saturday grabbed the opportunity to impress upon Rahul Gandhi as he took along 10 Congress MLAs from Karnataka on a special flight to Bihar to take part in the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra.’ He presented them before Gandhi in the sidelines of the yatra. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had reportedly claimed in New Delhi that Shivakumar does not have the backing of majority of MLAs like he has.
Considered a good organiser, Shivakumar’s move has been interpreted as one to impress the party bosses, especially Rahul Gandhi, as the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha has launched a battle against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the Election Commission of India over the alleged ‘vote theft’ issue. It is also to send out a message that he would adher to the party’s ideology, especially in the wake of receiving criticism from his detractors for reciting a hymn of the RSS anthem in the Karnataka Assembly recently.
It is also likely to draw the attention of the Congress allies in the INDIA bloc. Former cooperation minister KN Rajanna had spoken adversely against the vote theft issue criticising the Congress government as there were lapses on its part too as it could not check the voters’ theft though it was in power in Karnataka during the 2024 LS polls.
This has irked Rahul Gandhi as the Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had reportedly taunted the former, according to sources. That was why Rahul gave a clear cut instruction to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to dismiss Rajanna from the cabinet, they added. Rajanna’s exit was interpreted as a setback to Siddaramaiah as he could not protect his staunch supporter and Shivakumar scoring brownie points against the former’s camp. Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah is scheduled to join the yatra on August 29.
He will take a special flight along with his confidant and urban development and town planning minister Byrati Suresh, among others. “It would be interesting who all are likely to accompany Siddaramaiah and it will be decided soon,” a source said.
The leaders, including MLAs who had accompanied Shivakumar, include Srinivas Mane, Babasaheb Patil, Raju Sait, Rizwan Arshad, B M Nagaraj, Nayana Motamma, Ashok Pattan, Anand Kadoor, Venugopal Nayak, Dr NT Srinivas, Basanagouda Badarli, and former national president of Youth Congress BV Srinivas and state youth Congress president Manjunath Gowda.