Bengaluru: If the KPCC president's post is a stepping stone to the prized CM gaddi, Gandhinagar MLA Dinesh Gundurao seems to be on the right track with the Congress high command on Wednesday appointing him as party state president replacing Dr G. Parameshwar.
There are many KPCC chiefs who have gone on to become CMs in the past including Devaraj Urs, S. Bangarappa, Veerendra Patil, S.M. Krishna and Dharam Singh.
The party top brass seems to have played a careful game trying to balance caste and regional aspirations by naming four-time Brahmin MLA Dinesh Gundurao as the new Congress chief, while Lingayat strongman Eshwar Khandre, a Lingayat from the Hyderabad-Karanataka region has been appointed KPCC working president.
The race for KPCC chief had intensified after Dr Parameshwar was sworn in as deputy chief minister in the Janata Dal(S)-Congress coalition government. Now that Mr Rao has bagged the post, he has the onerous task of ending the infighting in his party and also coordinate with the coalition partner, Janata Dal (Secular) and ensure a pre-poll alliance for next year's parliament elections.
Mr Gundurao - son of late Congress CM, Gundu Rao -was minister for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs in the Siddaramaiah government, Mr Khandre served as minister of state for municipalities and also handled the department of public enterprises.
While Mr Rao is a safe and non-controversial choice, Mr Khandre has been chosen to placate the Lingayat community which is none too happy over the raw deal it received in allocation of ministerial berths. His father, Bheemanna Khandre, played a pivotal role in deciding the community's political choices and which party to support in earlier decades.
Son Eshwar had opposed former CM Siddaramaiah's proposal to seek minority status for the Lingayats ahead of the Assembly polls. "The elevation of Mr Khandre only indicates that the Congress wants to return to its earlier policy of playing it safe on the Lingayat religion status rather than toe the line taken by Siddaramaiah who had backed the demand," a senior cabinet minister told this newspaper on the condition of anonymity.
Congress sources added that the changes are part of Mr Rahul Gandhi's efforts to bring in a new team of young leaders to steer the party at the central and state levels.
