heyDK Shivakumar had tears in his eyes on 13 May. The ‘Dabangg’ of the Congress started getting overwhelmed by emotions. The Congress party had won 135 of the 224 assembly seats it contested in Karnataka – one of the biggest margins for the party in nearly three decades.
Abhibhut Shivakumar said, “I have said in the beginning, joining here is the beginning, thinking together is progress, working together is success the day I took oath (as state Congress president).”
The Congress party had called all its MLAs to the Shangri-La hotel in Bengaluru on May 14 as the national observers wanted to take the opinion of the newly elected legislators in deciding the next CM of Karnataka.
Outside the Shangri-La hotel in Bengaluru, supporters of Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah clashed, trying to shout at each other in the hope that the Delhi leadership would heed their enthusiasm.
The same day, surrounded by his party leadership, Shivakumar cut two cakes on his 61st birthday. But in less than 24 hours, he appeared defeated.
It was a dream to become the CM, but luck had approved something else. Supporters of Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah did not conduct a ‘secret ballot’ for the newly elected MLAs despite claiming the support of the ‘majority MLAs’.
But this will not end the endless drama in Karnataka.
It will take four more days and political drama will play out in the national capital as both the leaders refused to blink an eye, both wanted to be the CM. As far as the Congress is concerned, the good thing is that unlike in Rajasthan or Punjab, all the action remained behind the doors.
Karnataka has come as a weapon for a weakened Congress ahead of 2024. But party politics tends to take away the sheen of a clear and strong mandate and tarnish the image of the winners, which is often an important factor in national politics. With Congress, it has happened in Karnataka. And that’s why it is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
tale of two leaders
Apart from insisting on the party platform and the chief minister’s chair, there is little in common between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, who come from very different economic and social backgrounds. The biggest difference is their politics. Siddaramaiah has carved a niche for himself with his Ahinda (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) brand of politics, while Shivakumar is an organizational man. The latter is also emerging as a recognizable leader of the Vokkaliga community, an influential caste group whose dominance of state politics (along with the Lingayats) has been challenged by Siddaramaiah for much of his four-decade-long career.
The two have one more thing in common: the politics that brought down the HD Kumaraswamy-led coalition government.
After the assembly elections in May 2018, it was Shivakumar’s ploy that kept several MLAs out of the grip of the BJP, which emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats but could not form the government.
However, his ‘interference’ in the affairs of Belagavi in late 2018 triggered the first round of rebellion within the Congress-JDS alliance, as the Jarkiholi brothers, who consider the border district their political turf, strongly opposed it. Ramesh Jarkiholi, already upset with Shivakumar promoting his arch-rival Lakshmi Hebbalkar in Belagavi Rural, became the catalyst in the defection drama.
However, Siddaramaiah also had a role in the 2019 crisis that led to the Congress losing power in the state, say people aware of the developments, as almost all the 17 defectors were believed to be close to the then chairman of the coordination committee. Nearly 14 months after the Congress and the JD(S) forged an alliance to keep the BJP out of power, internal dissensions began to emerge within the alliance partners. Soon after the Congress and JD(S) were reduced to one seat each in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, several MLAs of the coalition government started resigning and the coalition government collapsed. Those close to Shivakumar say that these arguments were presented on behalf of Shivakumar during the talks for the chief minister’s chair in Delhi.
Shivakumar was then seen standing outside a luxury hotel in Mumbai as the man trying to retrieve the turncoat, where Ramesh Jarkiholi and at least 10 others had been hiding for days.
Shivakumar was arrested in a disproportionate assets case soon after the fall of the Congress-JDS government in 2019, in which he spent 50 days in Tihar Jail. It was his phoenix moment and the Congress leader did not succumb to the pressure. The challenges ahead are likely to push him further to his limits.
Read also: Why all parties should learn from Congress’ landslide victory in Karnataka, not just BJP
‘Not set in stone’
Siddaramaiah is a man who wants to leave behind a legacy, say those who know the leader, and his ‘Bhagya’ brand of welfare schemes will get a shot in the arm with the implementation of guarantees promised by the Congress.
When the Congress fulfills its five pre-poll guarantees, it will be the face of Siddaramaiah that will make his politics more visible and popular among voters. If Shivakumar gets a crack at the top chair in due time, there is little left for him to do.
Siddaramaiah will also lead the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which was considered one of the reasons for Shivakumar becoming the first CM.
While senior party leaders have confirmed to ThePrint on the rotational CM arrangement, there has been no official statement or comment from the national leadership on it.
“It is all fine print and nothing is set in stone,” said a Congress MLA on condition of anonymity.
Siddaramaiah’s strong hold on a large number of legislators means that anyone challenging his authority is inviting trouble for himself. Shivakumar, on the other hand, is trying to project himself as the ‘successor’ (at last). The Congress party in Karnataka has several factions led by leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge, G Parameshwara, KH Muniyappa among others. People like Parameshwara did not go down well with the party high command’s decision to accept Siddaramaiah as the chief minister for a second term. Nor is the decision to appoint only one deputy CM, at Shivakumar’s insistence, denying a chance to members of other dominant communities.
The Congress high command had offered Shivakumar the role of Deputy CM along with some key portfolios and asked him to continue as the state unit president. This has angered several other senior leaders, the effects of which are likely to be felt in the government. The battle for cabinet berths and key portfolios is already on.
Siddaramaiah’s proposed legislation such as the anti-superstition law, to regulate the cost of private medical care among others has been internally opposed in the past.
If sources are to be believed, Shivakumar was among those who opposed the release of the 2015 caste census, designed by Siddaramaiah to challenge the dominant caste theory in Karnataka.
Even though Shivakumar will have several departments under his control, the State High Level Clearance Committee (SHLCC) headed by the chief minister is the sole authority to approve big-ticket projects in the state. As CM, Siddaramaiah is expected to retain the finance portfolio, which drafts the budget and intelligence from the home department.
If the battle for the CM’s chair is any indication, the Congress-led government is likely to see more turmoil in the coming days – which it cannot afford 11 months before the Lok Sabha elections.
(Editing by Anurag Choubey)