Rahul, Sonia placate sulking DK Shivakumar

Bengaluru: Chairperson of UPA, Sonia Gandhi, and Congress president Rahul Gandhi reportedly counseled patience to sulking leader D.K. Shivakumar on Wednesday and also assured that he would be rewarded at an appropriate time.

Speaking to The Asian Age, sources close to the former energy minister said: “Mr Shivakumar was upset that he was not considered for the second deputy chief minister’s post. (Although this is a simple case of posturing in order to secure the KPCC president’s post along with a plum ministerial portfolio) Mr Shivakumar said in an interview to a TV channel stated that he need not prove anything to anybody as central leaders of his party knew his strength. So, he will be patiently wait for his turn.”

Sources added that Mr Gandhi assured him that the party needs his services and Mr Shivakumar must work for the party in future as well. This being  a coalition set-up Mr Shivakumar must not do anything to upset the dispensation.  “You will be rewarded at an opportune time,” Mr Gandhi reportedly assured Mr Shivakumar. Earlier, Mr Rahul Gandhi and Mrs Gandhi held secret parleys with party leaders — Mallikarjuna Kharge, K. C. Venugopal, former chief minister, Siddaramaiah and KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwara and Mr Shivakumar — to know about the details of how the party lost in the Assembly polls. “The leaders, in particular Mr Siddaramaiah who briefed Mrs  Gandhi and Mr Rahul Gandhi about the party’s performance, stated that the state unit fought an unprecedented, highly polarized electoral battle with upper castes — Lingayats, Vokkaligas, Bunts and Gowda Saraswat Brahmins — in respective regions consolidating like never before.”

Besides, other leaders obliquely referred to the fact that the party was not even able to consolidate its own vote bank consisting of Other Backward Castes (OBCs).  “Even party leaders at the grass roots level failed to deliver their best during the last leg of polling . This was another reason for the party to lose narrowly in some of the constituencies,” the source pointed out.