Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge may skip 'Invest Karnataka' summit: Why is Congress brass 'upset'?

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi are likely to skip the "Invest Karnataka 2025" summit in Bengaluru, where both have been invited as key guests.

Sources  told PTI that the Congress top leadership is "upset" over Union ministers and BJP leaders getting prominence at the event hosted by the Congress government in Karnataka. Even on the invitation card for the event, the names of Kharge and Gandhi figure below some of the Union ministers and it has reportedly irked the Congress leadership.

The Karnataka government has been pulled up by the party leadership over the decision, they added. The 'Invest Karnataka 2025' global investors meet is being held in Bengaluru from February 12 to 14 with the theme "Reimagining Growth". The event will see several top industrialists as well as some global investors attending it.

The event is being organised by the Karnataka government to attract global investment in the state, highlighting its strategic advantages in fostering innovation, industrial development and global partnerships. It is expected that investment proposals worth Rs 10 lakh crore, with a target of realising at least 70 per cent of these commitments like fostering innovation, industrial development and global partnerships, would be made at the three-day event, according to Karnataka Minister for Large and Medium Industries M B Patil.

While Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate the summit on February 12 in the presence of Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will preside over the inaugural session.

Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, is slated to launch the revamped Single Window System, and the state's new Industrial Policy 2025-30 will also be unveiled at the event. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was to participate in the concluding ceremony. Several Union Ministers, including Pralhad Joshi, H D Kumaraswamy, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Shobha Karandlaje and V Somanna, have confirmed their attendance for the event.

What are your views on this news? Comment below!!