Siddaramaiah to meet Congress leaders in Delhi tomorrow
Former chief minister Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru: Former chief minister Siddaramaiah is scheduled to visit New Delhi on Monday, to meet the senior Congress leaders.
The visit comes amidst the growing friction within the party over the chief ministerial candidate. The lobbying from Siddaramaiah and State Congress president DK Shivakumar's camps have created fissures.
Shivakumar recently discussed with Rahul Gandhi the need for organisational changes within the party.
A discussion regarding the appointment of State office-bearers was held and the KPCC president submitted a list of candidates to Rahul Gandhi after which Siddaramaiah too sent a list to the high command.
On July 7, son of MLA N.A Haris, Mohammed Harris Nalapad stated that Shivakumar would become the next chief minister.
He said that everyone in the party should support Shivakumar in becoming the next CM.
With the election due in two years, Nalapad said that if "every one of us votes for him then he will become CM".
Nalapad is considered close to Shivakumar. The growing dissent within the Congress has given the ruling BJP a stick to beat the opposition for predicting replacement of B S Yediyurappa as Chief Minister. Last month, Shivakumar said, "We have seen even the people who lose the elections also become a CM of the State. Not only the 224 elected members can become CM, others too can. Our State has seen such a thing in the past when Devraj Urs and Ramakrishna Hegde became CMs even after either losing the election or not contesting elections at all."