Bengaluru: Making no secret of his determination to take Chief Minister Siddaramaiah head-on, Congress rebel leader and dropped minister V. Srinivasprasad met former Union minister S.M. Krishna and is planning to meet AICC general secretary, B.K. Hariprasad in a day or two.
Sources said Mr Prasad wants these leaders to help him in getting Mr Siddaramaiah’s performance assessed by a neutral party central leader.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader close to Mr Prasad disclosed that he had been working tirelessly to build the momentum against Mr Siddaramaiah at the party central level instead of focusing on garnering strength at the state level.
“Irrespective of how many MLAs stand with him, Mr Prasad is determined to carry on. For him, the first agenda is to draw the attention of party central leaders to Mr Siddarmaiah's non-performance as a leader as well as Chief Minister,” the source explained.
Apart from this, Mr Prasad is also planning to thwart Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah and Congress Lok Sabha leader M. Mallikarjun Kharge’s bid to send party central leaders - AICC general secretary, Digvijay Singh or former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Dalit leader, Sushilkumar Shinde - to quell the rebellion in the state.
“Mr Prasad is aware of the fact that a fair assessment of the rebellion may not be done by these two leaders as they are close to Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Kharge respectively. He feels that if the party wants to assess the Chief Minister’s performance, then it has to be done by a neutral party leader. Mr Prasad is likely to meet central leaders such as Mr Hariprasad too in a day or two,” the source added referring to the veteran Dalit leader's plans.
