Former Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar was reportedly rattled that he was denied a key post in the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition government. He is said to have expressed his discontent to Congress party leaders, especially after his service to the party, and the risk he took in keeping the flock together after the fractured mandate in the Assembly elections.
To pacify Mr. Shivakumar, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and president Rahul Gandhi had a closed-door meeting with senior party leaders soon after the swearing-in ceremony of Mr. Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister and G. Parameshwara as the Deputy Chief Minister.
Dr. Parameshwara is expected to give up the State Congress party president post he held for the last eight years.
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Ms. Sonia and Mr. Gandhi reportedly told the former Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha M. Mallikarjun Kharge, and AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka K.C. Venugopal, who were all at the meeting, to visit Delhi after the floor test of the coalition government for discussing issues related to Cabinet expansion and identifying the next KPCC president.
Reliable sources said Mr. Shivakumar is expected to become the next president of the State unit and is also expected to get a Cabinet berth in the Kumaraswamy government.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters, Mr. Shivakumar said that he was not after power and he would work as a loyal party worker. The party high command would take a decision about his role in the party and the government, he added.
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Task undertaken
Apparently, Mr. Shivakumar was upset because it was he and his brother D.K. Suresh, MP, who took on the enormous task of moving the newly-elected MLAs to the Eagleton Golf Resort near Bidadi on the outskirts of Bengaluru to Hyderabad, and back to Bengaluru. They also played a big party in preventing poaching of party members by the BJP, sources said.
Sources in the party said Mr. Shivakumar was hoping that he would be rewarded with a suitable post for successfully checkmating the BJP’s efforts on forming the government.
He was keen on taking oath in the presence of a galaxy of leaders on Wednesday.
However, the announcement of Dr. Parameshwara as the Deputy Chief Minister on Tuesday has reportedly angered the brothers.