Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Mar 15: Newly appointed Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, D K Shivakumar, has been making an effort to meet senior leaders of the party to win over their trust. His focus is mainly on leaders who were opposed to his elevation as the KPCC president.

Shivakumar visited the leader of the opposition in the assembly, Siddaramaiah, veteran party leader and general secretary of All India Congress Committee, Mallikarjun Kharge, former union minister, K H Muniyppa, and outgoing KPCC president, Dinesh Gundu Rao, at their residences and thanked them for their support.

Shivakumar has taken over the mantle of the state unit of the Congress at a time when he faces the challenge of having to lead the party that is not in power, and which is dented with the migration of several leaders of substance to the BJP. He has to take on rival BJP, and for that, he needs the support of former chief minister and leader of the opposition in the assembly, Siddaramaiah, who is unhappy at Shivakumar having been made the KPCC president. Shivakumar, who has always come out as an aggressive leader, wants to build the party back to its past glory through balanced handling of the party and by earning the trust of leaders not close to him.

It is gathered that when Siddaramaiah faction had outright opposed Shivakumar's choice as the state president of the party, some old-timers including former union minister, K H Muniyappa, wanted to occupy the position of the KPCC president. Mallikarjun Kharge had stoically supported Shivakumar and worked to make him the state Congress president, it is said. Therefore, Shivakumar met Kharge and sought his continued patronage and advise for running the party.

He also discussed administrative matters of the party with other senior leaders, K H Muniyappa and Dinesh Gunu Rao, it is gathered.