Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar's proposed meeting with the party high command has raised eyebrows in the political circle.

The two leaders are likely to meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday evening, sources said.

Though Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have said that their Delhi visit pertained to their official work, their meeting with the top leaders assumes significance in the wake of ministers and MLAs indicating leadership change in the state and dissidence in the party.

The Congress general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala is camping in Bengaluru and has been holding meetings with the ministers and MLAs to resolve their issues.

Surjewala on Tuesday declined to comment on the ongoing discussions regarding the leadership change in the state, suggesting that it is no longer pertinent and also indicated that such decisions rest with the party high command.

Though Surjewala ruled out gathering any opinion on leadership change, BJP state president B Y Vijayendra said the Congress general secretary is setting the ground for the leadership change by November or December.

Despite strict directions to the party leaders not to discuss anything in public on the internal matters of the party and government, including the issue of leadership change, MLAs are vocal.

Some Congress MLAs are upset with the government. Kagwad MLA Raju Kage threatened to resign for lack of development in his constituency.

Aland MLAs B R Patil recently alleged corruption in housing scheme for poor families. Backing him, another Congress MLA Belur Gopal Krishna demanded that Housing Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan should resign.

Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna predicted a major development in September.

In the midst of Surjewala holding meetings with MLAs, CM Siddaramaiah asserted that he would complete his five years' term.

In response, some Congress MLAs, including Ramanagara legislator H A Iqbal Hussain from Shivakumar camp, insisted that they want their leader to become CM.

Shivakumar, who is also the Congress state president, not only asserted that he would toe the party line but also served a show-cause notice to his supporter MLA Hussain for his statement.

The Deputy Chief Minister and his brother D K Suresh, who is a former MP, have stated that the Chief Minister's post is not vacant.

There was stiff competition between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar for the Chief Minister’s post after the declaration of Assembly election results in May 2023, and the Congress had managed to convince the latter and made him the Deputy CM.

There were some reports at the time that a compromise had been reached based on a "rotational Chief Minister formula," according to which Shivakumar will become CM after two-and-a-half years in November 2025, but they have not been officially confirmed by the party.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.

The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.

Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.

Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.

What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.

"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,

which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.

"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.

"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.

"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.

In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.

The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.

With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.

Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).