Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Dec 29: Former minister, D K Shivakumar, who has displayed leadership skills and aggression which qualities the Congress is badly in need of at present, and who aspired to succeed Dinesh Gundu Rao as the president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), may have harmed his chances, party insiders feel. They assert that the party, which is wary of getting involved with controversies like installation of a statue of Jesus Christ atop Kapala Betta, may consider this as an issue that has compromised the image of Shivakumar.
In addition to Shivakumar, M B Patil, Ishwar Khandre, and B K Hariprasad are in the face to become KPCC president. Considering that the BJP has taken a strong exception to Shivakumar's initiative on the installation of the world's tallest statue of Jesus Christ atop Kapala Betta, the other aspirants may use this as a potent weapon to change the opinion of the party high command about Shivakumar, it is felt. BJP has been actively campaigning against Shivakumar, accusing him of trying to win over party president, Sonia Gandhi's favour by trying to install an idol of Jesus Christ.
In addition to the post of the KPCC president, posts of the leader of the Congress legislature party and leader of the opposition in the assembly are vacant as Siddaramaiah has resigned from the dual posts. While the national leadership of the party is understood to be in favour of continuing Siddaramaiah in these posts, a section of the party has been putting pressure on the high command to retain him as the leader of the legislature party and divest him of the post of the leader of the opposition. There are chances of the party leadership confining Siddaramaiah to one post instead of two he was holding till now. While Sonia Gandhi appears to be in favour of acceding to this demand of senior leaders of the party, a group loyal to Siddaramaiah like Dinesh Gundu Rao, Krishna Byre Gowda and others, who have sensed this line of thinking, have been bringing pressure through Rahul Gandhi to vest both these posts with Siddaramaiah, it is said.
Shivakumar, who is already mired in serious problems relating to money laundering case slapped on him by the enforcement directorate, has courted another controversy by deciding to install the statue of Jesus Christ over Kapali Betta in his home constituency. The BJP has been arguing that the said land was earmarked as a pasture for cattle and hence cannot be used for other purposes. Some BJP leaders have even gone to the extent of terming this as an effort on the part of the Vokkaliga leader to appease party president, Sonia Gandhi, with an eye on getting the post of the KPCC president.