S M Krishna angry, Delhi rushes in

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Bengaluru: Describing himself repeatedly as just a “foot soldier” out to drum up support for the Congress, former exte­r­n­al affairs minister S.M. Krishna says “my karma (deed) will end on the eve­ning of May 5”, the day of polling for elections to the Legislative Assembly, leaving the “rest” to other party colleagues in Karnataka.
In a free-wheeling, no-holds-barred interview to Deccan Chronicle here on Wednesday, and despite the loaded ‘karma’ inference, he said he will strive for the party’s victory and will  be “immensely happy” if he can swing votes in favour of the Congress, but will certainly not join the race for the Chief Mini­s­ter’s post.
In fact, he suggested that leaders should work to take the party’s tally past a “gettable” figure of 113 than debate about the Chief Ministerial candidate.
“Let us first get to the bridge, then we can talk about crossing it,” he rem­a­rked but was unwilling to commit to the precise pro­s­p­ects of the party, on the grounds that he was not am­ong those who had tou­red all the constituencies.
Interestingly, Kris­hna’s comments came on a day when he chose to skip the launch of the manife­sto and campaign in Hebbal Assembly constituency, forcing defence minister A.K. Antony and others to rush to his residence to placate him.
Sources close to Kri­s­hna said the Congress will find it difficult to regain its hold over the Old Mys­ore region after Kris­hna’s camp followers, in particular Mandya district unit president M.S. Atma­nanda, who command a vote base were denied tickets.