Karnataka Power Tussle: 2 Breakfast Meetings, Yet The Situation Returns To Square One

Bengaluru: While the Congress high command scripted `breakfast dramas' between Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka was aimed at exhibiting unity among the party leaders, a day after the two breakfast dramas were over, the situation was back to square one.

While Siddaramaiah camp arranged a `AHINDA' meeting at Mangaluru, which was attended by AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal, uninvited Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar took a flight to Delhi to attend a friend's family function.

It was the program organised by Narayana Guru Study Centre at Mangaluru University to mark the centenary of the meeting between Gandhi and Narayana Guru. Though the University had organised the program, MLC B K Hariprasad had taken up the lead in organising the program, as Narayana Guru is considered to be backward class leader from Kerala. Consequently, K C Venugopal was invited for the program and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also was an invitee.

However, the meeting turned into Siddaramaiah supporters' meeting with K C Venugopal as the other ministers like H C Mahadevappa, Dr G Parameshwar, Sathish Jarkiholi, Zameer Ahamed Khan and others joined the program. Despite the claim that it was an invitation for only backward class leaders, Primary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa, who belongs to Hariprasad's Bhillava community did not get an invitation as he is identified with D K Shivakumar camp.

After the program, K C Venugopal and these leaders had a close door lunch meeting for an hour, before Venugopal left for Kerala

As per the rumors in Karnataka, K C Venugopal is backing Siddaramaiah to continue as Chief Minister at least till general elections to Kerala Assembly, which is due in April, 2026 is over. That would be a help for him to win over backward class and minority votes over the CPI. The fear of Venugopal is that if Siddaramaiah is changed, it would be difficult for Congress to convince the backward class votes like Ezhavas and minority votes also.

The Wednesday's meeting by Siddaramaiah's supporters was to convince Venugopal to either continue Siddaramaiah for the full term or nominate a Dalit Chief Minister to Karnataka.

Meanwhile, D K Shivakumar had kept his engagement open and waited if he would get a call from at least Venugopal, so that the function and meeting by Siddaramaiah supporters would not send a wrong signal. When he did not get a call till afternoon, Shivakumar took a flight to Delhi, saying that he was attending a friend's family function.