Karnataka Leadership row: All eyes on Siddaramaiah''s trip to Delhi to attend CWC meet
Bengaluru (PTI): All eyes are set on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s trip to Delhi to attend the Congress Working Committee meeting.
The meeting comes in the midst of the leadership issue in the state, where Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar’s supporters are interested in seeing him as the next CM soon. About his visit to Delhi, Siddaramaiah told reporters in Davangere, “I am going for the CWC meeting today but I don’t go to Delhi frequently.”
Chief Minister had recently said inside the Karnataka Assembly that the party high command appears to be on his side and he would complete his five-year tenure.
Before leaving for New Delhi for the CWC meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters that all the confusion would be sorted out.
“I will speak there. Why will I speak here?” Kharge said.
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As the reporters asked him when the confusion over leadership in the state would be sorted out, he said, “It will be sorted out. You don’t need to worry about it.”
Shivakumar on Wednesday dismissed speculation about a possible change of guard in the state after Makara Sankranti, saying such talk exists only in the media and not within the party or government.
Shivakumar, who was in Delhi, said he is not meeting anyone during this trip.
"Kharge is in Delhi. I think Rahul Gandhi came yesterday, and I don't want to disturb him," he said.
Asked about the change of guard in Karnataka, he told reporters, "The speculation is only in the media. There is no speculation within the party or anywhere in the government. The media is only speculating about things."
Speaking about his current role, the Deputy CM said, "I would love to be a party worker rather than (holding) any position in the party. That is permanent for me," adding that he has been working for the party since 1980, completing 45 years of service.
Congress MLA from Ramanagara, H A Iqbal Hussain, a Shivakumar loyalist, has even predicted that there will be a leadership change in the state on January 6 or 9.
Sources in the Chief Minister’s Office told PTI that leadership change may not figure in the CWC meeting in New Delhi.
“The information we have is that this is only about drawing strategies for the upcoming Assembly elections in the country,” a source said.
Besides Siddaramaiah, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu will also be attending the meeting,” he added.
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Rupee hits all-time low for second time in a week
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 31 paise to settle at 91.99 against the US dollar on Wednesday, touching the lowest closing level for the second time in less than a week, amid increased month-end demand for the greenback.
Forex traders said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe offered quiet reassurance. However, increased month-end demand for the American currency as well as the ongoing geopolitical tensions dented investors' sentiments.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 91.60 and touched an early high of 91.50, but pared all the gains to touch an intra-day low of 91.99 against the greenback.
The domestic unit settled 31 paise down, revisiting its lowest-ever closing level of 91.99 against the greenback. The Indian currency previously ended at this level on January 23 when it also hit its all-time intraday low of 92 against the US dollar.
On Tuesday, the rupee rebounded from its all-time low levels and gained 22 paise to close at 91.68 against the US dollar.
Analysts said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe bolstered investor sentiment.
India and the European Union on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA), under which a number of domestic sectors such as apparel, chemicals and footwear will get duty-free entry into the 27-nation bloc, while the EU will get access to the Indian market at concessional duty for cars and wines, an official said.
The deal has been dubbed the "mother of all deals" as it will create a market of about 2 billion people.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at 96.14.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.43 per cent lower at USD 67.28 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 487.20 points to settle at 82,344.68, while Nifty surged 167.35 points to 25,342.75.
Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers and purchased equities worth Rs 480.26 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
