Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief DK Shivakumar cancelled his plans of going to Delhi at the last moment on Monday, May 15. Shivakumar, who had earlier in the day announced his plans to travel, cancelled it citing poor health. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar were scheduled to meet All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge and former AICC president Sonia Gandhi.
Speaking to an English news channel, Shivakumar said he does not know about the number of legislators supporting Siddaramaiah but wishes him the best of luck. DK Shivakumar has also told the media that he will abide by the party high command decision. He added that he has a stomach infection and needs medical treatment so he could not go to Delhi. "I don't rebel, it is not in my nature. I don't blackmail," Shivakumar said.
This comes a day after the first meeting of the newly elected Congress MLAs at Hotel Shangri-La in Bengaluru on Sunday, May 14 ended with the legislators casting their vote through a secret ballot. Though many numbers are doing the rounds in the media on how many votes the two leaders – Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar – got as choice for Chief Minister, a senior legislator told TNM that it was not a ballot of that sort. MLAs were asked to write whatever they chose, they were not asked to pick sides between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar.
Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has already travelled to Delhi, accompanied by MLA Satish Jarikholi and others to meet senior leaders of the Congress. At the Congress Legislature Party meet, a unanimous decision had been taken to leave the decision of choosing the new leader of the party, to Kharge.
On Monday afternoon, DK Shivakumar speaking to the press said that the Congress was able to get a sizeable majority under his leadership. He also said that he had left the question of leadership to the party high command. The support for both leaders to be the Chief Minister has only intensified after the announcement of the results, with the Vokkaliga community, including the influential seers insisting that Shivakumar be afforded the opportunity to become the Chief Minister.