'Have stomach infection, will not be travelling to Delhi today': Shivakumar

BENGALURU: Amid speculation regarding his visit to Delhi, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief DK Shivakumar said that he won't be travelling to the national capital today due to a "stomach infection".

"I have a stomach infection and will not be travelling to Delhi today. There are 135 Congress MLAs. I don't have any MLAs. I have left the decision to the party high command," Shivakumar told reporters here in Bengaluru.

Earlier in the day, the KPCC chief had said that he will be leaving for Delhi as he has been called by the party high command.

Addressing the mediapersons, Shivakumar said "It is my birthday today, I will meet my family. Afterwards, I will leave for Delhi. Under my leadership, we have 135 MLAs, all in one voice, said that the matter (to appoint CM) is to be left to the party high command. My aim was to deliver Karnataka and I did it."

"Congress high command called me and Siddaramaiah to Delhi. Sonia Gandhi, Kharge had given me the post of president. 135 seats have come under my presidency. When all MLAs left our party and we lost our government, I did not lose hope. I do not want to disclose what has happened in the last 5 years," the KPCC chief said.

He added, "I'm a single man, I believe in one thing that a single man with courage becomes a majority...When all our MLAs left the party (2019 JD(S)-Cong coalition govt), I didn't lose my heart".

Earlier in the day, former CM Siddaramaiah reached Delhi to meet the top Congress leadership as the party is engaged in the process of picking the next Karnataka CM.

Three central observers appointed by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in Karnataka, arrived in Delhi on Monday to present their report to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on the question of appointing the chief minister of the state.

The observers Sushil Kumar Shinde, Deepak Bawaria and Bhanwar Jitendra Singh were tasked with speaking to newly elected Congress MLAs on the election of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader in Karnataka and subsequently to submit their report to the party's high command.

The meeting was convened after the CLP unanimously passed a resolution authorising party president Kharge to pick the name of the Karnataka Chief Minister.

Congress, which registered an emphatic victory defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the results of the May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections on Saturday, had been mulling over the choice of the chief minister.

According to the Election Commission of India, Congress won 135 seats pushing the BJP - which managed to win 66 seats -- out of power in the only southern state it ruled and boosting the Congress prospects for the electoral battles ahead.