DKS with Nirmalananda at Adichunchungiri Math in Nagamangala in November 2022. (Twitter)
An important meeting of various Vokkaliga seers, including Adichunchungiri Swamy and Vokkaliga Sangha members, will be held on Sunday afternoon to pressurize the Congress for the DKS. The party has 29 newly elected Vokkaliga MLAs
Even as the race for the chief minister’s post of Karnataka heats up, the Vokkaliga community is pushing for its biggest leader in the state, DK Shivakumar. According to sources, the DKS camp is in no mood to get ready for the post of Deputy CM.
Read this also | karnataka election result live updates Here
An important meeting of various Vokkaliga seers, including Adichunchungiri Swamy and Vokkaliga Sangha members, will be held on Sunday afternoon to pressurize the Congress for the DKS.
The Vokkaligas are agrarian and are the second most influential community in Karnataka after the Lingayats.
According to DKS CameraP, Vokkaligas have voted for Congress in the hope of seeing DKS as CM after 25 years. The party has 29 newly elected Vokkaliga MLAs.
DKS supporters feel that Lingayats also like him more than former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, whom they see as someone who tried to break the Lingayat community.
Rahul, MLA from Sidda?
After a state-wide campaign ahead of the elections, when the results came in, Shivakumar broke down in front of television cameras. He said, ‘I give the credit of party workers and party’s victory to all the leaders. People have reposed faith in us and leaders have supported us. It is a collective leadership and we have worked jointly,” Shivakumar said, his voice choking.
“I had told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge that we will deliver Karnataka,” he said.
Read this also | ‘I can’t forget the day when Sonia Gandhi came to meet me in jail…’: DKS gets emotional, says ‘promised I will do it in Karnataka’,
The DKS funded several candidates in this election and helped counter the might of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
His camp claims that Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi will recognize the loyalty and sacrifice of DKS, while Rahul Gandhi may support Siddaramaiah.
The camp feels that if the high command goes for the individual opinion of the legislators, Siddaramaiah may have an edge.
#Watch , Tumakuru: Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar along with his family reached Nonvinakere Kadasiddeshwar Math to seek the blessings of Vrishabha Deshikendra Seer after winning the election. pic.twitter.com/rGKYnlrRZO– ANI (@ANI) May 14, 2023
‘Trustworthy Trouble Shooter’
A trusted lieutenant of the Gandhi family, Shivakumar, an eight-time MLA, is considered a “troubleshooter” for the party. He was in the thick of things in Maharashtra in 2002, as the then Vilas Rao Deshmukh government won a no-confidence vote. Speed. According to another party leader, he was also “instrumental” in ensuring the victory of the late Ahmed Patel in the 2017 Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat.
Read this also | Karnataka Elections: Siddaramaiah or Shivakumar? Congress factions have started a war of posters for the post of CM.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a money laundering case in September 2018 against Shivakumar, A Hanumanthaiah, an employee of Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others. The case was based on a charge sheet filed by the Income Tax Department against Shivakumar and others before a Bengaluru court for alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions. He was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on September 3, 2019, after a thorough interrogation by the ED. He got bail on October 23, 2019.
The Association for Democratic Reforms in its report said that Shivakumar is the third richest candidate in the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections with assets of Rs 1,413 crore.
The strong Vokkaliga face continued his winning streak in Kanakapura, defeating senior BJP leader and six-time MLA Revenue Minister R Ashoka.
with PTI inputs
