NEW DELHI: There is a thinking in Shivakumar’s camp that the defeat of his brother seemed preordained by the parallel powers in the Karnataka Congress.
After the disappointing performance of Congress party in the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka where the party was expecting majority of seats out of 28, there is suspicion of “sabotage” brewing up between the top two rival camps led by deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar and the chief minister Siddaramaiah, according to party insiders.
There is an understanding within Shivakumar’s camp that the defeat of Shivakumar’s brother seemed preordained by the parallel powers in the Karnataka Congress and therefore they directly point fingers towards Siddaramaiah, as they think Siddaramaiah has played expansive role in DK’s brother’s defeat, , according to sources close to leadership.
The anti- Siddaramaiah sentiments emerged, according to a leader, when Shivakumar faced a big setback in his Vokkaliga backyard after his brother DK Suresh failed to retain the Bengaluru Rural constituency. Moreover in another constituency Mandya, his arch rival, HD Kumaraswamy registered a huge victory by a margin of 2.84 lakh against the Congress’s candidate.
A senior leader, who holds constitutional position in the state, said to The Sunday Guardian, “It is true, Siddaramaiah wanted to show to the DK that he doesn’t have the stature to make anything happen on his own. He wanted to break the kind of image he had made and the kind of image he was projecting. There were a lot of resources spent by Shivakumar in order to be victorious on the seat, but he could not find victory.”
On the flipside, Siddaramaiah is wary that Shivakumar has been conspiring against him in order to dislodge him from the chief minister’s chair. According to a senior Congress leader, “Shivakumar has for long been eyeing for the top position in the state. Leaders close to the chief minister are alert that Shivakumar’s ambitions would only speed his political activity against the Siddaramaiah. So that shadow war could have a tipping point in coming time and then everything may be out in the open unless the leadership takes note of the situation and deals with it without letting the steam out.”
Consequently, there is a feeling in the Congress camp that Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president and deputy chief minister of Karnataka DK Shivakumar has been on the back foot after the grand old party failed to secure promised sum of seats.
According to party insiders, the Karnataka leadership had conveyed to the high command that the party would at least win a dozen seats but are expecting 20 seats (out of the 28) in the state. However the party was only able to be victorious on 9 seats.
A Congress leader said, “The disappointing performance of the Congress in the state can put everything, or every expected change on hold. There is this understanding that there will be change of chief minister after he completes his midterm, then Shivakumar could take the charge. But whether the Lok Sabha results will have any bearing on the expected change in the leadership is not known yet. Congress high command may set up a committee to see what went wrong in the elections.”
There are others, who suggest that the questions should be asked to the Karnataka leadership (both Sidaramia and Shivakumar), as to why they could not perform better when they were running the government of the state and had no apparent crunch in finances. A Congress leader said, “Congress in Karnataka is not short of money. It has everything. There was this theory being floated that the leadership of the state cadre is dynamic and can make things happen. Why couldn’t they get seats in double digits?”