Meeting between Shivakumar, Jarkiholi creates buzz amid leadership tussle in Karnataka

Bengaluru, Dec 5 (PTI) A meeting between Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and senior Minister Satish Jarkiholi at a wedding event, amid ongoing power tussle within the ruling Congress in Karnataka, has led to a lot of speculation.

Jarkiholi is considered close to CM Siddaramaiah and it is a known fact in the political circles that he and Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress President, had differences.

They met at the wedding event on Thursday night.

This is the second such meeting between the two leaders in recent times. The last was on November 25 night. There were reports that Shivakumar sought Jarkiholi's support for his chief ministerial ambitions and needed to work together to keep aside differences. There were also reports about making Jarkiholi state Congress chief.

Both Shivakumar and Jarkiholi on Friday played down speculation regarding their last night meeting, stating that it was a casual meeting at a wedding event.

"Satish Jarkiholi and I are colleagues. We meet at the Cabinet meeting in the afternoon, in the night we may meet for dinner, we may meet for breakfast in the morning. All those things will be there. Now, M B Patil (Minister) and I discussed for an hour regarding attracting investment to the state and competition from neighbouring states and at the global level. We discuss in the interest of the state," Shivakumar said in response to a question.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, "It is true that Satish and I met at a wedding event in the night. We discussed matters involving the party and the state. We are all colleagues. You (media) seem to count us as enemies." When told that there was a lot of curiosity regarding their meeting, Shivakumar said, "Nothing in politics. There will be friendship and bonding." Jarkiholi too confirmed that he and Shivakumar met at the wedding event and they had dinner together, "that's all." Asked whether they had a meeting for 15 minutes separately and it was the second such meeting between them, he quipped saying, "why 15 minutes? We may have had discussion separately for a longer duration." "It was a wedding event and they didn't know about each other attending. He (Shivakumar) is the party president. We met and talked to each other normally," he added.

To a question on talks regarding Shivakumar vacating the state Congress chief post for him, Jarkiholi said, "No such discussions have taken place and such a situation has not arrived yet. When the situation comes, let's see. There has been no discussion at the party level yet." Responding to a question, whether Shivakumar had sought his support, he said, "No, that question doesn't arise. Party will decide." When questioned whether there was a temporary truce in the party on the leadership issue for the sake of the legislature session, Jarkiholi said, "I don't know whether it is temporary or permanent...I feel that the tussle has stopped now." Meanwhile, Shivakumar on Friday had meetings with Ministers M B Patil and Priyank Kharge (who is the son of AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge), according to official sources, amid speculation that the Deputy CM was contacting senior leaders and ministers to advance his chief ministerial ambitions.

Industries Minister Patil, however, said that the meeting between them was purely regarding attracting investments and infrastructure.

The power tussle within the ruling party had intensified amid speculation about a change in chief minister in the state, after the Congress government reached the halfway mark of its five-year term on November 20.

The speculation was fuelled by an alleged "power-sharing" agreement involving Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar in 2023.

However, both the CM and Deputy CM had recently held breakfast meetings at each others residences, on the instructions of the high command, which is seen as a move to pause the leadership tussle between the two and to signal Siddaramaiah's continuation as the CM for the time being, especially ahead of the Belagavi legislature session from December 8. PTI KSU KH