New Delhi: In a move to get cracking for the Karnataka assembly elections due next year, the Congress has summoned all its top leaders including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to Delhi to meet Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Monday.
The main item on the agenda is finalising the name of the new KPCC president. The incumbent, Dr G. Parameshwar is expected to be replaced with two frontrunners for the post-Power Minister D.K. Shivakumar and former IT Minister S.R. Patil.
Shivakumar belongs to the Vokkaliga community which constitutes 15% of the state population. He enjoys a good rapport with Mr Gandhi. Patil belongs to the Lingayat community constituting about 20% of the state population.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is backing Patil because the BJP’s CM candidate, B.S. Yedyurappa is also a Lingayat. So having the state unit chief from the same community as the BJP’s CM candidate will take care of caste equations.
The newly appointed general secretary in charge of Karnataka, K.C. Venugopal has already submitted a report to the high command regarding the state unit chief. The final announcement is expected by May end.
Senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily, K.H. Muniyappa, Rajya Sabha MPs B.K. Hariprasad and K Rehman Khan will be attending the meeting at which fissures in the Karnataka unit are also likely to come up.
