BENGALURU:  When Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy met Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, there seems to have been some ‘sibling revelry’.  For, the conversation went from ‘sir’ to ‘brother’.  Kumaraswamy was in Delhi to impress upon Rahul not to quit his post. What followed was a 30-minute discussion on politics, electoral defeat and the need for Rahul Gandhi to continue as party president. This is perhaps the first time that the two leaders discussed at length and it came at a time when Rahul Gandhi had refused to meet even his own party leaders.

The serious discussion then suddenly veered towards Kumaraswamy’s habit of addressing those around him as ‘brother’. The news of brotherhood perhaps spread to New Delhi too with Rahul asking Kumaraswamy why he doesn’t refer to him as a brother, in his quintessential style. 

“Why do you keep calling me sir? Please call me brother. I don’t like you calling me sir so many times,” Rahul is said to have told Kumaraswamy leading to laughter during an otherwise rather serious meeting. 

Then the ‘brother’ took a back seat and Kumaraswamy is said to have given him some advice. Apart from assuring that the coalition was safe in Karnataka and that the Congress leaders were doing all they could to set things right, Kumaraswamy is said to have advised Rahul not to lose heart. 

 No Cong without you at helm, HDK to Rahul

“There have been times when our party was reduced to 3-4 seats. My father lost an election in Hassan soon after he stepped down as Prime Minister. I have lost many elections myself. A loss doesn’t mean we have to stop our journey. We have to move forward,” Kumaraswamy is said to have told Rahul Gandhi. The Congress boss who is adamant on quitting the post assured Kumaraswamy that he was going nowhere but would be part of Congress in Parliament but would prefer if someone else led the party for now.

More advice to the ‘brother’ followed. “No one in the Congress party will listen to anyone except leaders of the Gandhi family. It has almost become a part of Congress culture and only you can take it forward. There is no Congress without you at the helm,” Kumaraswamy said to have told Rahul Gandhi.

Ever since the Congress and JDS coalition government came to power in Karnataka, Kumaraswamy has met Rahul Gandhi at least four times but Thursday’s meeting was like none other. “This was a national election but we are still strong at the regional level. We just have to move forward. It is okay to lose elections, not okay to lose heart,” Kumaraswamy is said to have told Rahul Gandhi in parting.