Congress Postpones Karnataka Leadership Decision, Assigns Deputy CM Shivakumar To Oversee Assam Elections

Bengaluru: In a silent move, the Congress high command has hinted at postponement of handling the leadership tussle between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy CM D K Shivakumar, by assigning the latter to oversee forthcoming general elections to Assam Assembly.

Assam Elections Push Leadership Change Beyond Sankranthi

Since the five state elections, including Assam, are scheduled to be held in April, the leadership change will not be possible before that period.

D K Shivakumar, who was waiting for the leadership change before Sankranthi, which falls on January 14, has to wait for three more months before initiating any activity. Even after that, the party decision would depend on the outcome of the five state elections, while Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will be a star OBC campaigner for the party without any responsibilities.

From the beginning, Shivakumar depended on the party high command, especially Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to keep up the promise and stand by the power sharing agreement. Shivakumar started reminding both Siddaramaiah and the party high command. However, prior to that, Siddaramaiah and his supporters had started their operations to keep Shivakumar at bay from getting the coveted post.

While Siddaramaiah supporters launched a media campaign, the actual ground work was being done elsewhere.

Venugopal Plays a Key Role in Karnataka Power Struggle

They won the confidence of AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal and assured Siddaramaiah and his team's support during forthcoming Assembly elections to Kerala, which is also due in April. All they wanted was to protect the interest of Siddaramaiah and keep D K Shivakumar away from Kerala Assembly elections affairs.

This suited Venugopal, who is CM aspirant of Kerala if UDF comes to power. He is in a similar power struggle in Kerala with Ramesh Chinnitala, who is close to D K Shivakumar. When the power sharing struggle went to peak, Venugopal ensured that another AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, who was close to D K Shivakumar was slowly moved away from Karnataka affairs.

Shivakumar Assigned Assam Polls, Chief Minister’s Post Slips Away

When the power sharing struggle reached the peak, Venugopal also ensured two breakfast meetings between Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar in their respective houses. A feeling was floated among the D K Shivakumar supporters that the power sharing would be taken up after January 6, when Siddaramaiah creates a record as the longest serving Chief Minister of Karnataka.

However, soon after Siddaramaiah created the record, Shivakumar was assigned with the job of overseeing Assam elections along with Priyanka Gandhi. As a disciplined party functionary, D K Shivakumar could not say no to the new assignment, though he realised that the Chief Minister's post was just moving away from him.