New Delhi | Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar, who has been named Karnataka’s next deputy chief minister, on Thursday said that former party chief Rahul Gandhi called him and asked him to work together. He made the remarks after the party leadership announced his name as the sole Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka. The Congress declared Siddaramaiah as the new chief minister of the southern state. The swearing-in ceremony will take place in Bengaluru on May 20. Shivakumar, who is camping in the national capital since Tuesday, had met party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and several other leaders.
The party’s decision was announced after several rounds of meetings between senior leaders.
On Thursday too, Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah met party general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal over breakfast, where Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala was also present.
After this, the four leaders together went to Kharge’s residence in a car. After this Venugopal announced this at the party headquarters.
Shivakumar then went to the Youth Congress office and met Srinivas Biwi and congratulated her for working in the Karnataka Assembly elections.
Talking to the media at the IYC headquarters, Shivakumar said, “Everything is fine and it will be fine.”
Asked if he was happy with the decision, the Kanakapura MLA said, “We have prepared a one-line proposal and submitted it to the party leadership.” Eventually, Rahul Gandhi called me and said, we all have to work together.
He said, “Mallikarjun Kharge called us and whatever formula has been prepared, we have accepted it.”
Significantly, the Congress faced an uphill task to decide the next chief minister of Karnataka as both senior leaders Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were staking claim for the top post.
In the state assembly elections, the Congress won 135 out of 224 seats, where the ruling BJP was reduced to 66, while the JD-S could win only 19 seats.
