Siddaramaiah vs DKS: Kharge Confirms Power Struggle, Says 'We'll Fix It'

Congress boss Mallikarjun Kharge confirmed an open secret – the Karnataka leadership crisis – on Wednesday, and insisted the tug-of-war between the party's senior-most leaders in the state, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar, over the chief minister's post will be resolved, soon.

"Sonia (Gandhi), Rahul, and I will fix it…" the party President said this afternoon, shortly after party sources told NDTV a solution will be found by December 1, the start of the Winter session of Parliament. Sources said a Kharge-Rahul Gandhi meeting will be scheduled in the next 48 hours, after which Siddaramaiah and DKS will be summoned to Delhi, possibly on Friday.

That the Congress' central leadership has now admitted to the power struggle – in one of only three states it rules outright, and which votes in two years' time – seems to underscore the extent of factionalism within its Karnataka unit, with a group of MLAs firmly backing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and another insisting that DKS take over as 'reward' for his hard work.