Party workers want Rahul Gandhi to be Cong prez: D K Shivakumar

Bengaluru: Ahead of the working committee meeting, clamor seems to be growing for Rahul Gandhi to take over as Congress president, as its Karnataka unit chief D K Shivakumar on Tuesday said it is the unanimous voice of the party workers from across the country.

“Whole country, Congress workers, want Rahul Gandhi to take up the responsibility. We have been putting pressure on him since he resigned. The unanimous voice of the Congress workers from across the country is Rahul Gandhi (should take up the mantle of the party),” Shivakumar said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said “Rahul Gandhi is discharging 90 percent of the responsibilities even now, we want him to take up the responsibility.”

“There is a Congress Working Committee meeting on October 16….let’s see,” he said.

Another senior party leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too on Monday had expressed his wish that Rahul Gandhi take charge as the party president.

On reports about the party’s leadership offering a national role for Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar said it is for the leadership to decide and no such discussion has happened with the state unit.

“It is for the party and the legislature party leader (Siddaramaiah), I don’t want to interfere in it, these are mere speculations now, it has not been discussed with us,” he said.

There have been speculations that AICC president Sonia Gandhi had recently offered a national role in the party for Siddaramaiah, which he is said to have refused.

Rejecting such reports, Siddaramaiah, however, clarified that no such role was offered to him.

The KPCC president also claimed that several people are keen on joining the Congress, and were holding talks with other leaders and local leaders.

Stating that he was gathering information on coal and power shortage in Karnataka, the former state power minister, in response to a question, said “during our (Congress) rule, we had excess power and we were selling it to others….”