Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 27: Even as they showed bonhomie on the stage, the ongoing feud within the Congress over the chief minister’s chair in Karnataka between the incumbent CM Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar was on display at a party rally in Bengaluru on Tuesday when Siddaramaiah shouted back at some Youth Congress leaders shouted slogans in favour of Mr Shivakumar.
Mr Siddaramaiah visibly lost his cool when some Youth Congress workers started shouting “DK, DK” as the chief minister rose to address the marquee rally of the party. Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, besides the party’s national general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, state ministers, MPs and legislators, took part in the protest condemning the BJP-led Centre for replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with a new scheme, Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajivika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM-G.
As the shouting became louder with the CM walking towards the podium to deliver his speech, he shouted at the men asking them to keep quiet, but when they did not a visibly annoyed Siddaramaiah shouted back, “Who are those shouting ‘DK, DK’?” with DK very much present on the dais. In fact, there was bonhomie on show otherwise as the two leaders appeared to share some rapport on stage.
Videos of the slogan-shouting and CM’s reaction went viral, though, and were shared with critical comments by former party leader Rohan Gupta, who is now with the BJP, among others. The compere then told the crowd, “Youth Congress leaders should keep quiet. The chief minister is addressing. We know who you are. Listen to the CM silently.”
Rohan Gupta said: “In Bengaluru, the Congress stage once again turned into an arena for the battle over the chair… This is no public movement; it’s a power struggle within Congress, where neither the people nor development matter. Due to internal clashes, Congress is heading toward destroying itself.”
The ruling Congress in Karnataka has been a witness to the power tussle between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar; and several party MLAs and MLCs have lobbied on behalf of the deputy CM. The claim is that he was promised half the term as CM, which would have started in November. The party has made them hold breakfast and lunch meetings with each other, and both Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar have said they would abide by the high command’s decision. Siddaramaiah has also said he has full faith that he would complete the five-year term.
Meanwhile, the controversial Congress MP Shashi Tharoor whose relationship with the party seems to be drawing ever closer to the point of no return, skipped yet another party meeting on Tuesday afternoon, this time at ex-president Sonia Gandhi’s residence in Delhi, home, to prepare for next week’s Parliament session.
Current party boss Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi were present, as too were senior leaders like P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Pramod Tiwari, and Manish Tiwari. Sources said Tharoor was abroad at a literature festival in Dubai and will return later tonight. Sources also said he had informed the party of his non-availability.
This is the second time in the past four days Tharoor has skipped a top-level party meeting. Last week he did not attend one to discuss the April Assembly election in Kerala. Tharoor is the Congress’ Lok Sabha MP from state capital Thiruvananthapuram, a seat he has held since 2009. On that instance too Tharoor reportedly told the party he would not be available.
In fact, he later shut down any talk of skipping that meeting, telling reporters, quite firmly, the issue had been fully discussed within the party and he would not make public comments. He also skipped three meetings between November and December.
A diplomat by training, Tharoor is widely seen as being on thin ice with the Congress after comments seeming to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP. These include remarks about the Prime Minister’s handling of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, i.e., the retaliatory military strikes on Pakistan, as well as occasional critical comments in the media about the party and its leadership issues.
The remarks triggered fierce retorts from the Congress, including bitter comments about Tharoor angling for a jump to the BJP. Tharoor, however, flatly ruled out any talk of a switch from a party he had remained loyal for 16 years. “It (praise for the Prime Minister) is not a sign of my leaping to join his party… as some people have, unfortunately, been implying. It is a statement of national unity…” he had said.
Suddenly rumour is also on about his joining Kerala’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist). Asked about this on Monday Tharoor played coy; he said he had seen the news reports but declined to comment on the matter. Senior CPIM leader MV Govindan dismissed any talk about Tharoor joining the party as mere ‘speculation.’
