Siddaramaiah tells Sonia Gandhi Congress needs Lingayat chief to tackle BJP in north Karnataka, bats for MB Patil

New Delhi: Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday apprised the Congress top brass including interim President Sonia Gandhi, senior leader AK Antony and Ahmed Patel about the need of a ‘Lingayath’ state chief to tackle BJP in north Karnataka, sources said. Siddaramaiah met Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi at her residence in New Delhi on Tuesday. “We need a Lingayath president in Karnataka to lead the party and to tackle BJP in north Karnataka,” Siddaramaiah said. Former chief minister urged Sonia Gandhi to offer the command of state Congress to one of his close associates and Congress leader MB Patil. [caption id=“attachment_5090621” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Congress leader Siddaramaiah. Getty Images[/caption] On the other hand, after resigning from the post of Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader and taking responsibility for the loss in the bypoll, Senior Karnataka Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao also resigned from the KPCC president post. Now Siddaramaiah bats in favour of former minister MB Patil who hails from north Karnataka where BJP has a stronghold, and also belongs to the Lingayath community. While Siddaramaiah met senior party high command leaders in Delhi on Tuesday, he conveyed Congress leaders AK Antony and Ahmed Patel that he will continue as Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and CLP head only if high command orders and other senior leaders of the party in Karnataka give assent to it. He had also put one more condition that MB Patil can be the trump card for Congress to handle the BJP in north Karnataka. As per sources, Patel and Antony have tried to convince Sidharamaiah to take back his resignation and to lead the party in Karnataka but, Sidharamaiah has put some conditions in front of leadership and has said that he will continue only on high command’s approval. Sidharamaiah has been upset with the party leaders who have spoken over his leadership in Karnataka. After most of the strong Congress leaders who were also the close followers of Siddaramaiah joined BJP camp, now the latter is batting for MB Patil to regain his name as TRP leader in the state. Along with Siddaramaiah, Zameer Ahmad Khan, Bheema Naik, Ashok Pathan, RV Deshpande, Raghavendra Itnal and other leaders are endorsing Siddaramaiah for CLP, LoP leader and KPCC presidentship to MB Patil. On the other hand, DK Shivakumar, Satish Jarakiholi, HK Patil, Krishna Bhyregowda and KH Muniyappa are in the race to become state president for Pradesh congress committee. Finally, sources ensured that Siddaramaiah’s proposal may get passed in high command level and MB Patil can be the next KPCC president for the Pradesh congress committee succeeding Dinesh Gundu Rao.