A day after a leaked letter of Karnataka MLA and former minister K N Rajanna to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blamed D K Shivakumar for the sub-par performance of the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the deputy chief minister Wednesday said that he is still ‘inexperienced’.
Rajanna’s letter, dated November 17, sought to clarify his remarks on ‘vote chori’, which had cost him his Cabinet berth in August this year. In it, he blamed Shivakumar and other Congress leaders involved in the 2024 elections for not paying proper attention to lapses such as the appointment of booth-level agents.
He said this cost the Congress “eight to ten additional seats in Karnataka” and estimated that the party lost an additional 30-40 seats nationally due to these shortcomings. The letter had leaked days after Rajanna met Shivakumar, seen as an attempt by the duo to bury the hatchet. Rajanna, a staunch Siddaramaiah loyalist, has been critical of Shivakumar in the past.
Responding to a question on the lapses highlighted by Rajanna, Shivakumar, addressing a news conference in New Delhi, said, “I am still inexperienced. I will seek training.”
Regarding whether he would like to remain deputy CM for the next five years, he said he loved being a party worker and did not seek any position. “Since 1980, I have been a party worker. Until today, for 45 years, I have been continuing to be (so),” he said. When asked whether he had met the Congress leadership, Shivakumar replied in the negative.
Responding to fresh speculation about a power transition in January, he said that such discussions were only in the media. “There is no such discussion in the party or the government,” Shivakumar added.