Bengaluru
A day after most of the exit polls predicted that Goa might throw up a hung verdict in the assembly, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, D. K. Shivakumar aka ‘Trouble Shooter’ has flown to Goa in a special flight on Tuesday. Most pollsters on Monday predicted that Goa was heading for a hung assembly. A senior leader close to him, told City Highlights that Shivakumar will be camping in Goa for next three days and the party is expected to safeguard the party’s interests in Goa by safeguarding its MLAs from any poaching attempts. Former minister and Congress leader, Dinesh Gundu Rao is in-charge of Goa. Goa went to polls in the single-phase on February 14. The halfway mark in the 40-member assembly is 21. The leader added that this is not the first time Shivakumar has been roped for this kind of job. In 2017, Shivakumar shot to national fame after he took charge of looking after 44 MLAs from Gujarat, who were in a resort in the outskirts of Bengaluru till the day of the Rajya Sabha elections, August 8, 2017.
This was the most prestigious battle for both Congress and BJP, where Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel was seeking re-election, while his betenoir Union Home minister, Amit Shah wanted to ensure defeat of Patel. Central agencies such as Income tax and Enforcement Directorate raided multiple offices and residences belonging to Karnataka energy minister D K Shivakumar and his brothers then and at Eagleton Golf resort where 44 Congress Gujarat MLAs were staying. Prior to 2017, Shivakumar had become notable as the Congress’ go-to man since 2002 as the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh sought the help of his Karnataka counterpart S. M. Krishna to safeguard the party’s MLAs.
Krishna entrusted the job to Shivakumar, who kept the MLAs safe in a Bidadi resort. Assembly elections in five states — Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur — were completed in seven phases with UP being the first to go to polls on February 10. The voting in UP took place in seven phases starting from February 10, voting in Manipur took place in two phases starting from February 27, while Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa elections were conducted in a single phase on February 14. Results of all the assembly polls will be declared on March 10. A total of 690 Assembly constituencies of these five states went to polls in the last two months, with the maximum in UP (403 seats) followed by Punjab (117), Uttarakhand (70), Manipur (60) and Goa (40).
