However, Shivakumar assured that he would continue to be in leadership. “Don’t worry. I will be in leadership. I will be there on the front line.”
Published Nov 19, 2025 | 8:24 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 19, 2025 | 8:24 PM
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.
Synopsis: When some party workers in the crowd objected, Shivakumar said, “I can’t be around permanently. It is already 5.5 years. It will be six years in March. Opportunity should be given to others.”
Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Wednesday, 19 November, said that he couldn’t be the Karnataka Congress president forever, but would continue to be in the “front line” in the party.
He was speaking at a Congress event to mark former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s birth anniversary.
“Whether I am around or not is immaterial. But I want to set up 100 new party offices under my tenure,” Shivakumar said.
When some party workers in the crowd objected, Shivakumar said, “I can’t be around permanently. It is already 5.5 years. It will be six years in March. Opportunity should be given to others.”
However, he assured that he would continue to be in leadership. “Don’t worry. I will be in leadership. I will be there on the front line.”
He further said that he wanted to quit as the party president when he was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister in May 2023, but stayed back after senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi asked him to do so.
DK Shivakumar’s statement’s come amid talks of state cabinet reshuffle.
However, the reshuffle is unlikely to happen in November, as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to hold further discussions in the presence of senior leaders, including DK Shivakumar and All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretaries Randeep Singh Surjewala and K C Venugopal.
The CM travelled to Delhi on Monday, 17, November, to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss state-level issues including the ongoing agitation by sugarcane farmers in North Karnataka. He had earlier met senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Saturday, 15 November. Gandhi is said to have given the green signal for a cabinet rejig and advised the CM to consult Kharge for the final decisions.
The back-to-back meetings come at a time when the Congress government in Karnataka is nearing its halfway mark. In an earlier dinner meeting that the CM held with his cabinet colleagues, Siddaramaiah is learnt to have asked ministers to be prepared for changes in the Cabinet in December, subject to the high command’s decision.
(Edited by Sumavarsha, with inputs from Anisha Reddy)
