A lot to learn from US poll process, election rallies: Karnataka Deputy CM Shivakumar

Kalaburagi: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Tuesday said there is a lot to learn from the poll process in the United States and the way election rallies are conducted there.

Shivakumar, also state Congress chief, returned from his ten-day visit to the US earlier today.

He said it was private visit and he had not met any top political leaders there.

“Mine was a private trip, not the government, I had gone with family for some personal work,” Shivakumar told reporters here.

Asked about his trip being “linked” by some to the November five US Presidential election, he said: “all those things are false, the place I had gone, election (rally) was going on there, I had gone to see how things happened there….I have not met anyone (leaders).” “…we have a lot to learn, the passion there, youths, interest, election process — all those things, there is a lot to learn, I will speak about it some other time,” he added.

Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Shivakumar, replying to a question on his meeting with former Congress President Rahul Gandhi in the US, said he doesn’t need to take anyone’s permission to meet his party leader, and what transpired in the meeting is not for public consumption.

There were speculations in some quarters linking Shivakumar’s meeting with Rahul Gandhi over the possibility of change of Chief Minister. Shivakumar had in the past made no secret of his ambition to become CM.

To a question on violence and tension in Nagamangala in Mandya district and Mangaluru in Dakshina Kannada district, Shivakumar said the government and the police department had taken immediate action to bring the situation under control and will take action against the culprits.

“Those who want to do politics will do, we will not bother about it,” he said, in an apparent dig at the opposition BJP and JD(S).