Even as the Congress party leadership sat down in Ahmedabad to get down to brass tacks to build the party up from the grassroots, its Karnataka unit once again began playing up the leadership tussle in the state, as if to exert pressure.

State Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar was in Ahmedabad attending the meeting on Tuesday, but one of his supporters was on television demanding that he be made the Chief Minister as per an agreement reached long ago.

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Factionalism within the Congress came to the fore, or was it timed to perfection, as the leadership tussle once again played out on media screens, with a leading private channel airing a video clip in support of DK Shivakumar.

Basavaraj Shivaganga, MLA and known to be close to Shivakumar, said it was time the Deputy Chief Minister was elevated, setting a deadline of December, by when the Congress government would have completed half its term.

The Congress leadership had asked the party workers and leaders to avoid talking about the issue and just concentrate on work, but the guidelines are often ignored, and MLAs talk about the leadership issue openly, weakening the party and exposing its fault lines.

DK Shivakumar dismissed such talk and said that he was not concerned about the position and that he was happy to take up any assignment given by the leadership.

His present assignment, Shivakumar said, was also to strengthen the party and ensure bigger victories in all forthcoming elections—whether in Karnataka or elsewhere, as directed by the leadership.