Shivakumar is focused on becoming CM by replacing Siddaramaiah.
After almost a year of the Karnataka Assembly elections bringing the Congress to power in the state, the division between the two camps in the party is deepening. One camp is led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and another by his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar. Sources suggest that Shivakumar is totally focused on becoming Chief Minister by replacing Siddaramaiah.
According to a Congress Working Committee (CWC) member closely connected with Karnataka politics, Shivakumar is clear that he should be CM as soon as possible and for that he is repeatedly reminding everyone of the rotational CM formula that was decided on by the party high command, when Siddaramaiah was given the CM’s position. That formula ensures that one person gets half a term and the other runs the government in the other half. “Since Shivakumar was the one who made the organisation strong in the state, he thinks his claim on the chair is more than anyone else’s. If the high command does not work on this as early as possible, there could be confrontation between the two factions,” the source added.
A senior leader said that Siddaramaiah was not showing any signs of giving up his chair anytime soon: “Siddaramaiah’s people are saying we will stay in power for the whole five years. That is where the problem is.” A senior Congress leader who does not belong to any camp added that “The high command will have to decide on it. It won’t be like Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh or Madhya Pradesh or any other state. There could emerge a situation where the party could be on the brink of a breakdown if the decision is not taken by the high command. At least after the Lok Sabha elections, every major stakeholder should know where the party is headed and who is going to be who.”
A political observer based in Karnataka said, “When a person becomes CM, a full-fledged team backs the CM and plans out the roadmap for the next five years. Which means, the team has stakes and interests for the next five years. Since the team is backing the CM, it becomes powerful in every sphere, from lobbying to adjusting things according to their needs. So passing the baton to another CM, midway, cannot happen easily. Whenever there has been a transfer of power in Congress, it hasn’t been able to achieve the target.
Instead, it has created much deeper warring groups, affecting the unity of the party.”
Above all, senior leaders suggest that both leaders have made themselves comfortable in a manner that they may not be working for the Lok Sabha elections the way they toiled for the Assembly elections, which is not good news for the Congress. A senior leader said, “BJP’s vote share is intact. It was just that Muslims abandoned Janata Dal Secular and voted for the Congress in the Assembly elections, which increased the vote share of Congress and made it win the elections. But the Lok Sabha elections would be a different ball game.”