Not lobbying for state Cong chief post: D K Shivakumar

Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar said he was not lobbying for Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President post and will always abide by the Gandhi family decision.

Shivakumar’s assertion comes in the backdrop of his recent visit to Delhi to meet the Congress leadership leading to speculations about him lobbying for the post. He visited Delhi amid reports that the state Congress chief will be changed.

“…I don’t want to respond to what others are saying. I’m not an aspirant to any position. I don’t plead for any post. You (media) said I had gone for lobbying, why should I lobby?” he said here.

Speaking to reporters, he said, “I have belief inthe Gandhi family and their leadership. Whatever they do I consider it as ‘prasad’ and accept it.”

However, he was unwilling to give any direct response to a questionwhether he will accept the KPCC president post, if the party asked him.

“At several situations in thepast when I was to be made (president), I was not made (president), now I’m not bothered about it. If it’s in my fate, everything will come searching for me,” he said, pointing out that Laxman Savadi, who is not even a legislator, was today Deputy Chief Minister.

“It was in his (Savadi’s) fate, I congratulate him”.

Shivakumar during his meeting with the central leadership of the party has reportedly asked them to consider his name for the post of the leader of the opposition (LoP) in the assembly, if notfor KPCC chief.

Responding to a question,Shivakumar said Siddaramaiah was the leader of the Congress legislatureparty and it was left to the high command todecide on who should be the LoP.

Rubbishing media reports that he had made comments against Siddaramaiah, who is the other maincontender for the post of LoP post,he said “I’m not some one who make such loosecomments against some one, under whom I have worked. I was Minister under Siddaramaiah in his government.”

With B S Yediyurappa taking over as the Chief Minister last month, following the fall of theCongress-JD(S) coalition government, the LoP post is vacant.
With the Congress now the principal oppositionparty in the assembly, the the position goes to it.

Besides Siddaramaiah, there are several other senior leaders including Shivakumar, H K Patil and Krishna ByreGowda, who are reportedly eyeing for the post.

According party sources, the state unit is waiting for AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal and senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s visit to decide on the LoP and othermatters.

Asked whether there will be mid-term polls aspredicted by Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar said, “let’s not come toany decision urgently. They have just begun… I’m alsowaiting for our ‘Bombay Blue Boys’ to become Ministers,” he added.

He was apparently referring to 17 disqualified Congress-JDS MLAs who stayed put in a Mumbai hotel at the height of dissidence that led to collapse of the coalition government

As the Yediyurappa government in Karnataka completed one month in office on Monday, Siddaramaiah had claimed it may last one year at the most.