Mangaluru: Dinesh Gundu Rao, working president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), said on Wednesday that the former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna might have had the desire to occupy higher political/official posts in the country.

Speaking to presspersons after visiting the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple here, Mr. Rao said that party leaders had urged Mr. Krishna to reconsider his decision.

But Mr. Krishna had said that he had been sidelined in the party.

“May be, he wanted to occupy bigger posts such as President or Prime Minister. The party could not fulfil these desires. Hence, he might have felt pained over it,” he said.

Mr. Rao said that Mr. Krishna’s decision to resign from the party had been both a shock and a painful event for the Congress workers.

He had been in the party for over four decades. Party workers and leaders held him in high esteem and treated him with respect. “I am surprised why he took such a decision. But it is his personal decision,” Mr. Rao said.

Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Services and Sports, was present.