Almost four months after he was appointed the president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee(KPCC) party trouble shooter D K Shivakumar finally took oath at the party office in Bengaluru.

The event called ‘Pratigna Dina’ was postponed three times owing to the pandemic and the government refusing permission to conduct any events of the kind.

As the 58 year old strongman from Kanakpura took over the reins from former chief DInesh Gundu Rao who ceremoniously handed over the party flag, he was joined by Congress workers across the state who witnessed the event through live-streaming.

In a charged speech, Shivakumar, who is hailed as ‘Kanakapura da bande’ or the boulder of Kanakpura said he wished not to be a boulder but ‘the stepping stone of Vidhan Soudha faciliating the entry of Congress leaders into it’.

The two hour long event saw a white topi clad Shivakumar read out the party pledge with former Union Minister Rehman Khan administering the oath to the party cadre on the preamble of the constitution.

Shivakumar, calling the event ‘historic’, elaborated on the vision to rebuild the party into a cadre based one and not a leader based one as the party in the state was already witness to what ‘leaders that were raised’ by the party did for it in return hinting at the rebels who had jumped over to the BJP.

Shivakumar has the task of carving out Congress 2.0 in the state as its voter base has dwindled to winning it seats in double digits in the state which was for long its stronghold. A strong Vokkaliga leader, Shivakumar’s loyalty has been hailed as one of the virtues that helped him win the party’s trust while keeping the party intact every time crisis struck.

With inputs from IANS