Not lobbying for Karnataka Congress chief post: DK Shivakumar

Shivakumar's assertion comes in the backdrop of his recent visit to Delhi to meet the Congress leadership leading to speculations about him lobbying for the post. He visited Delhi amid reports that the state Congress chief will be changed.

"...I don't want to respond to what others are saying.

I'm not an aspirant to any position. I don't plead for any post. You (media) said I had gone for lobbying, why should I lobby?" he said here.

Speaking to reporters, he said, "I have belief in the Gandhi family and their leadership. Whatever they do I consider it as 'prasad' and accept it."

However, he was unwilling to give any direct response to a question whether he will accept the KPCC president post, if the party asked him.

"At several situations in the past when I was to be made (president), I was not made (president), now I'm not bothered about it. If it's in my fate, everything will come searching for me," he said, pointing out that Laxman Savadi, who is not even a legislator, was today Deputy Chief Minister.

"It was in his (Savadi's) fate, I congratulate him".

Shivakumar during his meeting with the central leadership of the party has reportedly asked them to consider his name for the post of the leader of the opposition (LoP) in the assembly, if not for KPCC chief.

Responding to a question,Shivakumar said Siddaramaiah was the leader of the Congress legislature party and it was left to the high command to decide on who should be the LoP.

Rubbishing media reports that he had made comments against Siddaramaiah, who is the other main contender for the post of LoP post,he said "I'm not some one who make such loose comments against some one, under whom I have worked. I was Minister under Siddaramaiah in his government."

With B S Yediyurappa taking over as the Chief Minister last month, following the fall of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, the LoP post is vacant.

With the Congress now the principal opposition party in the assembly, the the position goes to it.

Besides Siddaramaiah, there are several other senior leaders including Shivakumar, H K Patil and Krishna Byre Gowda, who are reportedly eyeing for the post.

According party sources, the state unit is waiting for AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal and senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad's visit to decide on the LoP and other matters.

Asked whether there will be mid-term polls as predicted by Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar said, "let's not come to any decision urgently. They have just begun... I'm also waiting for our 'Bombay Blue Boys' to become Ministers," he added.

He was apparently referring to 17 disqualified Congress-JDS MLAs who stayed put in a Mumbai hotel at the height of dissidence that led to collapse of the coalition government

As the Yediyurappa government in Karnataka completed one month in office on Monday, Siddaramaiah had claimed it may last one year at the most.