Bengaluru/New Delhi: Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister on Tuesday, January 14, met with AICC interim-president Sonia Gandhi and party leader Ahmed Patel to pick the new president of the KPCC.
It can be recalled that the Congress high command has been trying hard for the past few months, to find a suitable candidate to replace outgoing KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao, who handed in his resignation after the party’s poor performance in the recently concluded Assembly by-polls.
So far, MLA and Vokkaliga strongman D K Shivakumar and former minister and Lingayat strongman M B Patil are the frontrunners for the post. However, it looks like the latter may take the cake as Siddaramaiah has reportedly thrown his weight behind him.
Considering that Patil is a close aide of the former chief minister, it would come as no surprise to anyone to hear that the latter reportedly lobbied hard for Patil to get the coveted post during his meeting with Ahmed Patel.
If the reports are to be believed, Siddaramaiah urged Patel to advocate Patil’s name to Sonia Gandhi for consideration for the post.
Later, Siddaramaiah met with Gandhi at her residence. He was accompanied by other Congress leaders such as Zameer Ahmed Khan, Bheema Naik, Raghavendra Hitnal and Ivan D’Souza.
