Internal negotiations culminated in planned Karnataka power transition.
Even as Siddaramaiah on Friday decided to step down as Karnataka Chief Minister on the request of the party high command, preparations for the transition had begun in July last year and gained momentum in December before becoming a reality this month, sources said.
Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, party General Secretary (Organisation) K. C. Venugopal, and General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala attended a meeting with Siddaramaiah and his deputy D. K. Shivakumar on May 26 in Delhi to decide the power transition in the southern state.
After the crucial meeting on May 26, Siddaramaiah stepped down as Chief Minister on May 28 after holding a breakfast meeting with legislators and cabinet ministers.
Sources in the party said the script for the leadership change in Karnataka began in July last year when leaders aligned with the Shivakumar camp started raising demands that he be made Chief Minister and that the party leadership consider his claim to the post.
Sources said Shivakumar had been visiting the national capital frequently since June last year to press his case for the Chief Minister’s position.
During his visits, Shivakumar held talks with Kharge on multiple occasions over the issue, sources said.
Following this, Surjewala also visited the state and held discussions with legislators and several senior leaders to gather feedback.
However, Surjewala on numerous occasions described these meetings as routine interactions and maintained that a change of guard in the state was not on the cards.
Meanwhile, top party insiders said that after the planned cabinet reshuffle discussions in December last year, under which several senior leaders were expected to be dropped following the Kamaraj model, Shivakumar once again arrived in the national capital and held a dinner meeting with Kharge. Since then, the pace of discussions surrounding the leadership transition accelerated.
A party insider said that during his visit to Delhi in the last week of December, Shivakumar appeared convinced about his prospects of securing the top post.
The insider said Shivakumar believed that the party leadership treated him like a son and that his case was different from that of other leaders.
The insider added that Shivakumar was so confident that he expected to become Chief Minister by January itself.
However, the plan was again deferred and shifted to May because of the crucial elections in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry.
Stars aligned in Shivakumar’s favour when Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was made chairperson of the screening committee for Assam, with Shivakumar appointed as one of the senior observers in the northeastern state.
Sources said it was during several meetings with Priyanka Gandhi that Shivakumar was able to strengthen his case.
However, the final decision on the leadership change in Karnataka remained with Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
A top party source said the exercise of gathering feedback from state leaders, ministers and MLAs was carried out on multiple occasions, but the final decision was left to the top leadership until an appropriate time.
The source also claimed that the prolonged uncertainty over the leadership issue and the power tussle were creating obstacles to development work and sending the wrong message to the public. Following the election results in Kerala, the Congress leadership decided to proceed with a change in the Chief Ministerial leadership.
A call was then made to Siddaramaiah on May 24 asking him to attend the high-command meeting on May 26 in Delhi. Shivakumar received a similar call the following day.
During the marathon meeting at the new party headquarters on May 26, Rahul Gandhi, after a detailed discussion with Siddaramaiah, requested him to step down and also offered him a prominent role in Delhi along with the possibility of a Rajya Sabha berth, the source said.
The source added that Rahul Gandhi asked Siddaramaiah to consider the request and respond within the next two to three days.
Following his meeting with the party high command, Siddaramaiah discussed the matter with close cabinet associates in Delhi and returned to Bengaluru on May 26. He then convened a breakfast meeting with legislators and cabinet colleagues at his residence on May 28 and announced that he would step down at the request of the party leadership, paving the way for D.K. Shivakumar’s succession, the source said.
However, many of his cabinet colleagues and legislators wanted Siddaramaiah to reject the request of the party leadership. Senior Congress leader K. J. George, however, intervened and made it clear that Siddaramaiah had given his word to the leadership and that they should respect the veteran leader’s decision and facilitate a smooth transition.
Siddaramaiah subsequently travelled to Delhi on May 28 to express his gratitude to the leadership for giving him the opportunity to lead Karnataka and serve twice as Chief Minister and twice as Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.
When Siddaramaiah met Rahul Gandhi at 10 Janpath on May 29, sources said the Congress leader smiled and thanked the veteran OBC leader for standing by the party’s decision and acting like a statesman during a significant phase in Karnataka politics.
The source said that during the one-to-one meeting, Rahul Gandhi told Siddaramaiah that he had set an example for other Congress leaders by sacrificing his post at the request of the high command.Â
