Congress on a tightrope ahead of Karnataka polls

NEW DELHI: With the Election Commission announcing the Karnataka Assembly election date on 10 May, Congress in the state has entered a challenging phase. The party’s two top leaders, Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar, are eyeing the CM’s position if the party comes to power. A party leader said, “If anyone of the two, during campaigning, projects himself as the CM face, troubles for the party will start.”
However, both the leaders have avoided speaking against each other. Sources close to Shivakumar say that both the leaders know that if the Congress loses, nobody will get anything. So the focus is currently on winning the election rather than focusing on individual ambitions. Further, Shah Nizamuddin, Congress spokesperson for Karnataka, altogether denied any rift between the two leaders based on political ambitions. He said, “There has never been a dispute. They have always been working in tandem with each other, there is no question that there was any dispute. This is just basically rumour created to confuse political camps.”
There have been growing murmurs about the inconsequential formula of rotation, where the first half of the CM’s term is held by one leader and another by a second leader, to be applied in Karnataka. However, Nizamuddin denied any such formula in the state.
He said, “There is nothing, no formula is there, no understanding between the leaders about half a term formula is there, absolutely nothing. We are preparing to fight elections, then MLAs and the legislative party of the Congress will decide who will be the chief minister. So when the legislative committee makes a decision, the decision on the chief minister will also be out.”
Moreover, recently the formula has not worked for the Congress in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. A political analyst said, “If the formula of rotational CM is brought forth again by the Congress, the one who gets the position first will focus more on strengthening his position and controlling the levers of power to harness more support, like what happened in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.” He further added, “Although in Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel has been able to manoeuver things, we’ll keep the government stable. It has, on the other side, kept Rajasthan cadre on the edge. The reason is, in Rajasthan, the two leaders are very popular and are vocal about their ambitions. The same could happen in Karnataka, as it also has two powerful leaders in pursuit of one position, that of the CM.”