BENGALURU: Amid discussions over the leadership change issue in Kar nataka, state Congress president DK Shivakumar said fac tional politics is not in his blood and he is president for all 140 Congress MLAs.
The Deputy Chief Minister also took a jibe at the ministers from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's camp, holding dinner meetings. "The honourable CM has said he will be the CM for five years. I wish him all the best. We will all work with him," Shivakumar said, responding to a question on Siddaramaiah's remarks that he would continue as the CM and present the next budget. Shivakumar said they cannot stop the party leaders from visiting New Delhi or holding dinner meetings.
Hitting out at his detractors within the Congress, the DCM said there is nothing new with dinner meetings. "They want ed to make a new PCC presi dent and four to five DyCMs. All these things have been ing on for the last two and a half years. There is nothing new. Let them hold more such meetings," he said.
Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi, Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara and Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao held a dinner meeting on Thursday.
Shivakumar said factional politics was not in his blood, and all 140 MLAs were impor tant to him. "I am not interest-ed in taking any group to Delhi. I don't believe in factionalism.. The CM has said that he will carry out a cabinet reshuffle, and hence some MLAs are travelling to Delhi to meet the high command. I have not taken any MLA to Delhi. They are going to Delhi on their own. What is wrong with that?" he said, re ponding to a question.
DKS meets MLAs Kulkarni, Veerendra in Bengaluru jail
On Friday evening, DCM DK Shivakumar met Congress-MLAs Vinay Kulkarni and Veerendra Puppy at the Bengaluru Cen-tral Prison. Pappi and Kulkarni are under-trial prisoners.
While Kulkarni is facing murder charges, Pappi was arrested by the Di-rectorate of Enforcement (ED).. A statement from the DCM's of-fice said he offered words of courage to the Congress MLAs.The DCM visited the jail at 4:30 pm and met Veerendra Puppy and he later met Vinay Kulkar-goni, who returned from a hear ing at a court.
The meeting assumed signifi-cance in view of the ongoing discussions over the change of guard in the state. It was seen as an attempt by the DCM to woo the MLAs, as their support would be important if a Congress Legislature Party meet-ing is called to discuss the lead-ership issue.