Ghulam Nabi Azad holds talks with state Congress leaders to select K'taka unit chief

Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday held discussions with top party leaders in Karnataka to select the CLP leader and new State Congress president, two posts which have been lying vacant since December 9 last year.

Congress Legislature Party Leader Siddaramaiah and state congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao had quit their posts, owning moral responsbility for the party’s rout in the December 5 bypolls, when it won only two of the 15 seats. The ruling BJP had won 12 seats and an independent, one.

The party has not made it clear whether it has accepted their resignations or not, but Siddaramaiah and Rao are adamant that they would not continue in their posts. “Azad today met senior party leaders like Siddaramaiah, G Parameshwara and DK Shivakumar to decide the next Congress state president and the CLP leader,” Karnataka Congress general secretary Subhash Agarwal told PTI.

Agarwal added that the party was also considering the demand to bifurcate the posts of CLP leader and the leader of the opposition in the Assembly. Congress sources said the high command’s ‘indecision’ to accept the resignations of the two leaders was making potential aspirants unhappy.