Bengaluru: Energy minister D.K. Shivakumar is not the kind of politician to take things lying down. So when it became known on Wednesday during a Congress bigwigs meeting presided over by AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi that Dr G. Parameshwar would continue to be KPCC president and he was out of the race, Shivakumar thanked everyone and slowly walked out. CM Siddaramaiah tried to set to rest apprehensions that Shivakumar, who is pretty popular among younger Congress leaders and workers, was upset, but those in the know aver that the CM too played a role in sidelining the Vokkaliga strongman, who he feared, would run away with the candidate selection in an election year.
What might have really rankled Shivakumar, was the significant role played by JD(S) national president H.D. Deve Gowda in thwarting his chances.
The former PM, during a recent meeting with Congress leaders in connection with the Presidential election, insisted that Shivakumar should not get the KPCC president post. Gowda and Sidddaramaiah know that the Congress and JD(S) are natural allies if the 2018 polls throw up a hung verdict. That sealed Shivakumar's fate.
