BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s camp is pushing for Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara for the top post in the event of the Congress high command facilitating a change of guard in Karnataka. PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi has held talks with AICC General Secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal on behalf of the AHINDA ministers.
Jarkiholi had a long chat with Parameshwara over dinner till 2 am on Friday at the former’s residence in Belagavi. Sources say the move is with the tacit approval of Siddaramaiah.
The Siddaramaiah camp has conveyed a message to the party high command that if DCM DK Shivakumar becomes CM some 20 to 25 Congress MLAs from north Karnataka would shift their loyalty to BJP to secure their political future in the 2028 assembly polls. They had tried to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah through Union minister Pralhad Joshi.
Shivakumar has been saying that there was a power sharing pact with Siddaramaiah when the party came to power in 2023. It is likely to come up for discussion when the high command calls them to resolve the issue.
Siddaramaiah is likely to suggest to the high command to go by the party legislators’ decision by and large, according to sources. But it is not clear yet whether the Siddaramaiah camp is seriously pushing the case of Parameshwara, a foreign educated Dalit, for the top post or a ploy to convince the high command as the former should beallowed to continue in the interest of the party.
Parameshwara had served as KPCC president for a record eight years (2010-13) and helped the party clinch power in 2013 and ensured it formed an alliance government with JDS in 2018 in which he was the DCM. His equation with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi is good as with the Siddaramaiah camp’s with Rahul Gandhi, observed a Congress leader. But it is interesting how Siddaramaiah camp is going to convince the AICC chief Mallikarjuna Kharge and would give that task to Parameshwara himself, he added.
Meanwhile, Shivakumar called on former minister KN Rajanna at the latter’s private guest house in Bengaluru on Saturday evening. Rajanna is a close aide of Siddaramaiah. Rajanna had even stated that he will not become minister if Shivakumar becomes the CM.