The Congress high command has asked Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to step down and shift to national politics through the Rajya Sabha, party sources told India Today on Tuesday. 

The party leadership has offered Siddaramaiah a Rajya Sabha berth from Karnataka and a "bigger role" in Delhi as part of ongoing discussions on the future leadership structure in the state, sources said.

The Congress leadership assured Siddaramaiah that "all other things and his issue will be taken care of" during the discussions.

The leadership held a high-level meeting at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi. The meeting was attended by Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary KC Venugopal, and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Surjewala.

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Addressing reporters after the meeting, Venugopal denied any discussion on a leadership change and said the nearly two-hour meeting focused exclusively on Rajya Sabha and Karnataka Legislative Council elections.

"Today’s discussion was only around Rajya Sabha polls and MLC elections. Whatever you speculated is not true," Venugopal told reporters. "We had a meeting. CM, DCM, and Randeep were present. The entire discussion concentrated on Rajya Sabha and MLC seats today. Stop speculation."

Despite the denial, the meeting revived talk around the Congress's internal power-sharing arrangement in Karnataka. Supporters of Shivakumar have repeatedly maintained that he was promised the chief minister's post after the party's victory in the 2023 Assembly elections.

After the Congress's emphatic victory in 2023, both Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar staked a claim to the chief minister's post. The party eventually picked Siddaramaiah as chief minister, ending days of intense negotiations.

However, reports at the time said Shivakumar agreed to the arrangement only after the Congress leadership worked out a power-sharing formula under which Siddaramaiah would serve as chief minister for the first 2.5 years. Under the reported arrangement, Shivakumar was expected to take over the top post after the halfway mark of the government's five-year term. The Congress has never publicly confirmed the existence of such a deal.

The formal agenda of the meeting included discussions on the upcoming Rajya Sabha and Karnataka Legislative Council elections. Four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka are falling vacant, with the Congress expected to win three and the BJP likely to secure one.
 

Published on: May 26, 2026 6:13 PM IST