Rahul goes into a huddle with Cong leaders ahead of meeting Kumaraswamy

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 21

Moments after HD Kumaraswamy, the chief ministerial candidate of the opposition alliance in Karnataka said “meeting Rahul Gandhi was not crucial, only cordial”, the Congress president flexed muscle in Delhi by holding a meeting with top party strategists.

Gandhi met Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot and KC Venugopal, AICC in charge for Karnataka, at his 12 Tughlaq Lane house here to talk about the proposed Cabinet structure in the stage where Kumaraswamy is to take oath on May 23.

Kumaraswamy will meet Rahul Gandhi and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi later on Monday to finalise the look of the cabinet amid reports that there are differences of opinion between the Congress and JDS on the post of chief ministership and portfolios.

The Congress is keen on the post of deputy chief minister for its state chief G Parameswara but the JDS is yet to open its cards.

The Congress which gave the Lingayats religious minority status ahead of the polls is equally under pressure from this faction to accommodate Lingayat ministers—a matter of discussion between the JDS and Congress.

Kumaraswamy has said more than once that everyone should accept what his father and JDS chief HD Deve Gowda said about the cabinet and its composition because stability is more important than anything else.

The Congress, however, feels it has compromised enough by offering the CM post to the JDS which has just 37 MLAs in a 222-member assembly when the Congress has 78.

Senior Congress men are exerting pressure on the high command to bargain hard.

Former minister and Congress MLA DK Shivakumar, widely hailed for the Congress and JDS alliance, wants his pound of flesh in the form of power ministry.

All this is to be discussed between Gandhis and Kumaraswamy.