Bengaluru, 24 Oct

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday clarified that his son Yathindra Siddaramaiah did not name anyone as his successor.

Bringing a storm in the Congress Karnataka unit, party MLC Yathindra on Wednesday said, "He (Siddaramaiah) is at the far end of his political life. At such a time, a leader needs to guide and lead those who have progressive thinking, ideologically."

Minister Satish Jarkiholi is a leader with similar progressive ideological thinking, he said at Chikkodi in Belagavi district.

His statement was perceived as declaring Siddaramaiah’s successor. It came at a time when the power corridor in Karnataka is abuzz with rumours that Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar would succeed Siddaramaiah in November as per a compromise arrived at in 2023 based on a ‘rotational chief minister formula’.

Siddaramaiah, who will complete two-and-half years as chief minister this November, had asserted in the past that he would complete his five year tenure.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Siddaramaiah blamed the media for wrongly presenting Yathindra's statement.

"What can I do if his statement is twisted? I spoke to him (Yathindra) and asked him what exactly he had said. He said he spoke only about principles. He did not say that ‘so-and-so’ should become chief minister," he said.

When asked about the need for such a statement in the midst of confusion over the successor, Siddaramaiah said, "You people do not stay quiet and keep asking such questions despite saying ‘no’."

Earlier in the day, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said he will speak to the person who should be spoken to.

"I am not going to speak now, but I will speak to whomever it is that should be spoken to," he told reporters here.

He was replying to a query by a reporter who sought to know why notice was not served to Yathindra, who was speaking about the change of guard.

Recently, two Congress MLAs, HD Ranganath and HA Iqbal Hussain, were served notices for their statement that Shivakumar should become the next chief minister of the state.