Bengaluru: Though the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar have decided to wait till the party took a final decision on power transfer, the war of words between Siddaramaiah camp and Shivakumar camp has continued unabated.
In the melee, Siddaramaiah's son and MLC Dr Yathindra has come under direct attack from Shivakumar camp members, who have asked him not to assume the position of party high command.
After the attack, Dr Yathindra, who was vocal about Siddaramaiah's indispensability to the Congress party had the habit of issuing public statements about the ongoing crisis. This time, Shivakumar supporter and Ramanar MLA Iqbal Hussain minced no words and asked Dr Yathindra to keep away from the leadership issue, as the party high command will take a decision on that.
Though Shivakumar camp tried to maintain a low profile over the power transfer, Siddaramaiah camp members started to oppose such a move since last six months. While some were indirect hints, some were direct swipes at Shivakumar. Neither Shivakumar, nor his supporters reacted to the jubes of Siddaramaiah camp members.
Dr Yathindra was vocal and even went to the extent of saying Minister Sathish Jarkiholi will succeed his father. On other occasions, he always said that his father had been elected by the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) for five years and there was no reason to change him.
Shivakumar, who is also KPCC President, had warned the party members against making any public statements regarding leadership change. When few of his supporters tried to counter Siddaramaiah supporters, they were issued show cause notices. However, none of Siddaramaiah supporters were issued with notices.
Only when the two and a half year period was completed, D K Shivakumar took up the issue of power transfer directly with the party high command. However, Siddaramaiah's statement that no power sharing talks had taken place had cornered the party high command. To buy out sometime, the party high command had scripted two breakfast meetings between the two leaders, where they declared that they would abide by the party high command decision.
On Monday, during winter sessions in Belagavi, Dr Yathindra said that the party high command has made it clear that there was no change in party leadership and his father would continue to be chief minister for the full term. ``The confusion started since D K Shivakumar expressed his desire to become Chief Minister and the party high command is not interested in changing the present leadership.''
This irked the Shivakumar supporters, who directly attacked Dr Yathindra, asking him to restrain from adjudicating the duties of party high command.
``Let him not take the party high command position. We have party superiors, who will take appropriate decisions on the ongoing crisis. When the Chief Minister himself has said that he would abide by high command decisions, nobody needs to talk over the issue,'' Iqbal Hussain said.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa said that the party had given him not to comment on the issue. ``We abide by the directions of the party high command. If others want to violate a party high command decision, they are free to do so. I am not saying anything,'' he added.
K J George, supporter of Siddaramaiah said that any decision taken up by the party high command will be the best decision for the party and himself. ``We have to abide by high command decisions and no one knows what decision the party high command will take,'' he added.
