After lobbying hard for the appointment of a Veerashaiva leader as KPCC president, the 30-member Congress delegation which is in Delhi, wound up its tour on a high note with KPCC vice president Rani Satish meeting AICC president Sonia Gandhi Tuesday afternoon and explaining the problems the state unit is facing.
The delegation also met the AICC president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel and discussed with him the need for a change of leadership in the KPCC. Sources said that during her meeting with Mrs Gandhi, Ms Satish explained the weaknesses of the ruling BJP and how it could be exploited by the Congress. She reportedly said that if the Congress was keen on coming to power, it would have to respect Lingayat sentiments. “Besides the constituencies which are considered to be Lingayat seats because of the predominance of community members, Lingayat voters are a decisive factor in other OBC, SC and ST constituencies. So, we cannot ignore the Lingayats,” she told Mrs Gandhi. In a bid to win the confidence of the AICC president, Ms Satish reportedly suggested that the KPCC president’s post could be given to a Lingayat leader and the incumbent KPCC president, Dr G. Parameshwar could be made the chief ministerial candidate once the party came to power.
Later, during the meeting with Mr Patel, the delegation explained to him the instances when the Congress had come to power when the party was led by a leader of the dominant community. The delegation also posed the question on how the Congress would be able to do well under the leadership of Dr Parameshwar when it was unable to wrest power when it was led by another formidable Dalit leader, Mallikarjun Kharge.