Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar flew into Delhi on Wednesday, a day after his second breakfast meeting with chief minister Siddaramaiah amid the simmering tussle for the state’s top post. But the trip, sources said, was not for political negotiations. Instead, he arrived in the capital to attend the wedding of a former bureaucrat he befriended during his nearly 50-day stint in Tihar jail in 2019 on corruption allegations.
According to reports, the Congress leader landed in Delhi at 3pm and was scheduled to attend the wedding of former Haryana IAS officer Sanjeev Kumar. Initially a whistle-blower, Kumar spent a decade in jail over the state teacher recruitment scam in which former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala was the main accused. Released in 2021 after completing his sentence, Kumar remained in touch with Shivakumar after they bonded during their time in Tihar.
Before leaving from Bengaluru, Shivakumar told reporters he was heading to Delhi for a wedding and also expected discussions at the Congress headquarters for the party’s ‘Vote Chori’ (vote theft) campaign scheduled for December 14 at Delhi’s Ramleela Maidan.
Siddaramaiah Distances Himself From Delhi Trip
Back in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah travelled to Mangaluru for an event marking the centenary of Sri Narayana Guru’s meeting with Mahatma Gandhi. Congress general secretary K C Venugopal also attended and later held a lunch meeting with the chief minister.
Asked about Shivakumar’s Delhi visit, Siddaramaiah said, “Let him go. Has anyone said no to him?” When pressed on whether he would join, he responded firmly, “I will go only when I am invited. I was not invited, so I am not going.” He added that any direction from the party high command for a Delhi meeting would come through Venugopal.
Shivakumar was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on September 3, 2019 in a money laundering case and lodged in Tihar jail until being granted bail by the Delhi High Court on 23 October. He has repeatedly said he was jailed for refusing to join the BJP, a claim the party denies.