New Delhi, Jan 2 (IANS) Amid hectic lobbying in Karnataka, the Congress has not been able to name a new party President in the state.
The state no committee as it has been dissolved by the Central leadership for an overhaul.
While D.K. Shivakumar is said to be the frontrunner for the top Congress post, sources say that he is facing hurdles within the party in Delhi as Shivakumar is said to be close to the senior leaders in the old setup but people who are part of the new setup are not comfortable with him
Shivakumar was in the news when the ED sent him to jail and the top leadership of the party including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi later went to meet him in jail.
Shivkumar has been instrumental in government formation with the JD-S during the previous regime where he was the sole person to keep the flock together and was also instrumental during Gujarat Rajya Sabha election where the MLAs were housed in a resort in Bengaluru.
The party lost the recent by-elections and almost all the Congress rebel have won the elections, citing non-performance of leader of opposition Siddaramaiah who has also resigned from his post. Congress now has only Dinesh Gundu Rao as President of the unit without any office-bearers.
While for the top slot Krishna Byre Gowda a Vokkaliga by caste is also being backed by Siddaramaiah, former MP of Chamarajanagar A.R. Dhruvanarayana is also backed by a section within the party who is from the scheduled castes while former Union Minister K.H. Muniappa is also in the running for the top post.
–IANS
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