Rahul Gandhi meets Congress chief Kharge, discusses govt. formation in Karnataka

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Amid the race for the Karnataka chief minister’s post, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday met party president Mallikarjun Kharge and discussed government formation in the southern state. Gandhi drove to Kharge’s residence and held a closed-door meeting with the Congress chief for almost an hour and a half.

 Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala, who is in charge of the party’s affairs in Karnataka, and AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal were also present at the meeting. Kharge earlier held discussions with party leaders from Karnataka and the three observers appointed by him to oversee the Congress Legislature Party meeting held in Bengaluru on Sunday.

The observers had sought the opinion of all newly-elected MLAs and also held a ‘secret ballot’ on their choice for chief minister. The observers discussed the findings of their report after speaking to the party MLAs in Karnataka and handed it over to Kharge Monday night. Both Siddaramaiah and state Congress president D K Shivakumar are front runners for the chief minister’s post and both are lobbying for it.