Bengaluru: Till a few days ago, major irrigation minister D K Shivakumar was considered to be the troubleshooter of the Congress party. Now, however, it seems like he is slowly losing his control over the party. This became evident in a meeting convened by him in the city on Wednesday night, to convince the party’s Mandya unit leaders not to support independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh.
According to sources, DKShi wanted to issue a gag order against party workers and leaders working on behalf of Sumalatha, who is contesting against Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and the candidate of the JDS-Congress alliance. He had invited all the party leaders from the district, but none of the popular leaders attended the meeting.
“No senior leader attended the meeting. The writing on the wall is clear. Nikhil is not acceptable to the Congress local leaders,” said a party leader.
“It is a question of our survival. There is no question of supporting the JDS candidate. If Nikhil wins, it will be the end of the Congress,” he said.
