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Siddaramaiah calls on DK Shivakumar for 'breakfast': 'We will discuss everything'
Siddaramaiah completed 2.5 years on November 20 and Shivakumar’s supporters have been claiming that it is time for him to keep his “promise” to leave the post.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah said on Friday that he has invited his deputy, DK Shivakumar, for a meeting over breakfast on Saturday to “discuss everything”, after the Congress high command urged both of the senior leaders to hold discussions on the ongoing crisis concerning the state’s leadership.
“The high command has called D K Shivakumar. They had called me as well. They told both of us to meet and talk. So I invited him for breakfast. When he comes there, we will discuss everything,” the chief minister said.
The development comes a day after the two senior leaders had a figurative exchange of “words” on promises and power with Shivakumar making a cryptic reference to a promise — specifically to his claim on Monday about a “secret deal” anchored by the Congress leadership after the party won to power in Karnataka in 2023. The chief minister was apparently supposed to relinquish his post to his deputy after two-and-a-half years. Siddaramaiah completed two-and-a-half years on November 20 and Shivakumar’s supporters have been claiming that it is time for him to keep his “promise” to leave the post.
Soon after, Siddaramaiah posted on X that the “mandate given by the people of Karnataka is not a moment, but a responsibility that lasts five full years”, asserting that he would be chief minister for a full term of five years.
On Friday, Siddaramaiah, however, maintained that he will “follow what the high command says”.
“I am saying the same now, and I will say the same tomorrow,” he said, adding that Shivakumar too has said “many times that he will follow what the high command says”.
The chief minister also said that he will go to Delhi “if the high command calls him”.
Earlier in the day, Shivakumar had indicated that may travel to the national capital in view of the Parliament’s winter session starting December 1.
“I will definitely go to Delhi. It is our temple. Congress has a long history, and Delhi will always guide us. When they call me, the party leaders and the chief minister, we will go there,” the Karnataka Congress president told reporters on the sidelines of a function marking the golden jubilee of the Anganwadi programme, where he shared the stage with the chief minister.
He added: “I don’t want anything. I am not in a hurry. My party will make a decision.”
The deputy chief minister also referenced the party’s earlier leadership decisions to argue that internal matters have historically been settled through consultations with the high command.
“Sonia Gandhi was Congress chief for 20 years. She also sacrificed power… Abdul Kalam called her to become the next PM but she refused… suggested Manmohan Singh as someone who could develop the country,” he said.
He added: “When Sonia Gandhi ji made me the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President, we made a promise to the people that we have great faith in the youth and women. Based on that trust, we launched five guarantee schemes. In this manner, we prepared the blueprint of all these programmes.”
Earlier in the day, state information technology, biotechnology, rural development and panchayati raj minister and Congress leader Priyank Kharge had said that the Congress high command possesses the sense of timing to resolve the intensifying “power tussle” between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar.
“Nobody has given any official invitation or statement on the meeting in New Delhi. The chief minister and the deputy chief minister have said that they will go to Delhi if they are invited by the Congress president or All India Congress Committee general secretary and Karnataka in- charge Randeep Singh Surjewala. Let the invitation come from Delhi, then only it will be decided,” Kharge said.
