Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 15: The victorious Congress leaders of Karnataka are converging in Delhi for the choice of the legislature party leader as the high command faced an acid test to choose between two top contenders for the coveted post after the party’s emphatic win in the just-concluded state Assembly elections overthrowing the BJP from power.
The exercise for consultations to name the next chief minister of the state began on Monday after the newly-elected members of the Karnataka Assembly on Sunday, as per the tradition of the party, passed one-line resolution empowering the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to name the new leader.
The party sources said what originally considered to be a smooth affair in selecting the leader in former chief minister Siddaramaiah for yet another term, could prove to be a major headache for the party leadership after the state Congress chief DK Shivakumar was strongly dig in vying the for the post.
Siddaramaiah has already reached Delhi while Shivakumar, who is celebrating his 62nd birthday on Monday, said he would be reaching the national capital by late Monday night while another senior Congress leader from the state BK Hariprasad was also expected later in the evening.
On Sunday, a team of observers appointed by party high command met all the newly-elected MLAs to get their opinion on the new chief minister. A party spokesman said the observers met the MLAs through the night and would submit their report to Kharge. The team of observers is also back in Delhi for discussions with the party’s national leadership, which includes Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul Gandhi and others. Congress General Secretaries Sushil Kumar Shinde, Deepak Babaria, and Jitendra Singh Alwar were the observers at the meeting.
The supporters of both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah shouted slogans outside the Bengaluru hotel where the meeting took place. Earlier on Monday, Shivakumar said he has done the job he was tasked with and now it was up to the “party high command” to take a call on who gets the chief minister berth. He said he had no differences of opinion with Siddaramaiah and would abide by the decision high command take on the leadership choice. “We have passed a one-line resolution. We will leave it to the party high command. I have done whatever job I have to do,” Shivakumar said.
Both eight-time MLA Mr Shivakumar and former chief minister Siddaramaiah have made no secret of their ambition to become Chief Minister and had been involved in a game of political one-upmanship in the past. The task for the high command will not be as easy as it was being made to sound with Shivakumar digging in with supporters from religious ranks also. Seer Vachanananda Swami of the Harihara Mutt, who after the BJP came to power in 2020 had demanded specific cabinet ranks for some Lingayat leaders, this time is batting for Shivakumar. “He is one of the tallest leaders, very dynamic and very productive. I wish him all the best for his upcoming endeavours,” Vachanananda Swami said, after visiting the Congress leader, ostensibly to wish him ahead of his birthday on Monday.
Besides the Lingayat Harihara Mutt seers, Shivakumar has been endorsed by the head pontiff of the main mutt of the Vokkaliga community, to which he belongs. Nirmalananda Swami, the head of the Adichunchungiri Mutt, called for Shivakumar to be made the CM on account of his hard work as the KPCC chief.
This strong push by Shivakumar has put the Congress in a difficult position after its big win of 135 seats in the Karnataka polls, and delivered a blow to its hopes of having an easy pick in Siddaramaiah, given his experience and stature.
According to sources in both the Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar camps, neither leader is willing to yield. While some sort of agreement was reported to have been made earlier for a shared tenure, this has fallen apart.
The Congress leadership is also taken lessons that shared tenure concept of two and half years has not worked in any state including Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh which would be going to the polls later this year but internal squabbling is taking a toll on the party.
While Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have been known bitter rivals for over a decade on account of differences in mindset, value systems and approach to politics, in the run-up to the polls, the Congress had managed to smoothen these over. Videos of apparent bonhomie between the two leaders were among several measures taken by the party to project a united front, especially as the BJP appeared divided.
Shivakumar, who once told a private TV channel that the BJP had tried to lure him with the post of deputy CM to avoid jail, and that he had chosen the latter, believes he has earned his moment given where he has brought the party since. Speaking after the results, Shivakumar repeatedly broke down, invoking his “promise” to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi to “deliver” Karnataka.
But Siddaramaiah is seen as holding the edge, not just because has the backing of 90 of the 135 newly elected MLAs of the Congress, but his popularity as a leader with a pan-Karnataka reach, with a support base across not just his community Kuruba voters but also Muslim and other communities.
Shivakumar, in contrast, is restricted to southern Karnataka and mostly the Vokkaliga community.
The Congress will also bear in mind the 2024 general elections, in looking to balance its interests between the two leaders.
While the 60-year-old DK Shivakumar is considered to be a “trouble-shooter” for the Congress, Siddaramaiah has a pan-Karnataka appeal. The Congress had entered the campaign phase with the challenge of keeping at bay the factionalism. After winning 135 seats in the 224-member Karnataka assembly, the party put up a united front with Mr Kharge and the two CM hopefuls addressing the media and party workers together.
The scale of the Congress win is a record in terms of both seats and vote share in over 30 years. The closest the Congress came to this score was in 1999 when it won 132 seats and had a vote share of 40.84 per cent. In 1989, it won 178 seats with a vote share of 43.76 per cent.
A decision is expected to be taken by the high command in the next two days and swearing-in of the new chief minister is expected to be held on Thursday, the party sources said.