Shivkumar was to go to Delhi to meet the party high command. However, he had to cancel the tour due to a stomach infection. (PTI/File photo)
The KPCC chief said that Lingayats, Vokkaliga seers and other Congress leaders have requested that they should be given a chance.
in exclusive interview with cnn-news18, Shivakumar dismissed reports of Siddaramaiah being elected as the chief minister.
“I don’t know anything… the media is gossiping. Due to ill health, I was asked to go to Delhi, I did not go. I am not part of the high command, we are party workers. The party will take the final decision.”
The KPCC chief said Lingayats, Vokkaliga seers and other Congress leaders have requested that they should be given a chance. “Ahmed Patel would have been very happy to see that the Congress has come to this stage in Karnataka. He must have liked it. One thing I have learned is that it is the man with courage who gets the majority. Loyalty will pay loyalty. I leave everything to the High Command. Without the root you will not get the fruit,” he said.
Shivkumar was to go to Delhi to meet the party high command. However, he canceled the trip due to a “stomach infection”.
“I have stomach infection and I will not be able to travel to Delhi today. The Congress has 135 MLAs. I don’t have any. I have left the decision to the party high command,” he told reporters in Bengaluru.
Earlier in the day, the KPCC president made a strong pitch for the chief minister’s post, leaving it difficult for the party high command, which is already in a tough spot to choose between him and Siddaramaiah.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Shivakumar called himself a “single person” and said he believed that a single person with courage becomes a majority.
“I am a single man, I believe in one thing that a single man with courage becomes a majority… When all our MLAs left the party (2019 JD(S)-Congress coalition government), I did not lose my heart Lost,” he said.
Shivakumar reiterated that the party’s high command will decide on the CM.
Meanwhile, Congress observers for Karnataka, including Sushil Shinde and Jitendra Singh, met party president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi. They are likely to submit a report to Kharge on the CLP meeting held in Bengaluru.