Bengaluru: In a swift political development in Karnataka, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who remained silent for two and a half years has now made his first move to claim Chief Minister's post.
While Shivakumar remained in Bengaluru, despatching one team of MLAs to Delhi on Thursday afternoon and feigning ignorance about the development, stunned Siddaramaiah cut short his Chamarajnagar tour on Thursday, rushed back to Bengaluru to hold a series of meetings with his supporters. After hectic developments, AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge rushed back to Bengaluru and held a meeting with D K Shivakumar.
The power sharing game started once the Bihar election process was completed. Siddararamaiah, along with Power Minister K J George met Rahul Gandhi and AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, seeking permission for cabinet reshuffle. The calculation was that, if the cabinet reshuffle is permitted, then there will be no question of power transfer to D K Shivakumar. However, the high command did not give a clear direction.
Siddaramaiah camp presumed that any change would be only after December, when the winter session of both Parliament and Karnataka Assembly would be concluded. But, things started rolling on Thursday afternoon.
During a party function, D K Shivakumar said that there would be two types of people in politics -- one workers and other who reap the harvest of others' labour. Within half an hour, his younger brother D K Suresh went to the media and said: `Siddaramaiah should stand by his promises'. In the next 20 minutes, Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy, who was in the middle of his department meeting, abruoptly ended the meeting and headed to Airport along with eight MLAs..
Siddaramaiah, who was in a function at Chamarajnagar, learnt about the development and cancelled all the functions and rushed to Bengaluru. He tried calling Cheluvarayaswamy, but the latter was already on the flight to Delhi. In Delhi, Cheluvarayaswamy met AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal and later Mallikarjun Kharge, but denied that they spoke anything about leadership change.
Back in Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah and his supporters held a series of meetings to chart out future moves. Friday morning, Siddaramaiah put up a bold face and said that he would be completing his term as the Chief Minister. He said that the legislators might have gone to Delhi to lobby with the party high command, as he was planning to reshuffle the cabinet. Meanwhile, his supporters were holding a series of meetings and busy launching the signature campaigns of the legislators.
On the other side, D K Shivakumar remained unfazed with Siddaramaiah camp developments.Reacting on Siddararamaiah's claim that he would complete the term, Shivakumar just quipped: ``I wish good luck to him''
On Legislators going to Delhi, Shivakumar said that they were free to go and meet Delhi leaders. ``I don't head any factions. I am the party President for all the 140 Congress legislators.If some legislators go and lobby for ministerial berths, I can't object to that,'' he added.
Meanwhile, Mallikarjun Kharge rushed back to Bengaluru on Friday evening and held one round talks with D K Shivakumar and his brother D K Suresh. Siddaramaiah is expected to meet him on Saturday morning.
Ever since the government came to power in 2023, D K Shivakumar was the main contender for the Chief Ministerial post. He had lost the Chief Ministerial race twice before and in 2023, he had led the party to power. It was said that Shivakumar wanted to resign as KPCC President and refuse any post in the government, when he was denied the Chief Ministerial post. While Siddaramaiah had complete support of LOP Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi were in favour of Shivakumar. After intervention of Sonia Gandhi, with assurance to make him Chief Minister for the second half of the term, Shivakumar agreed to continue as KPCC President and become Deputy Chief Minister.
As the half term came closer, Siddaramaiah and his supporters started claiming that he would complete the term and Shivakumar could be Chief Ministerial candidate in 2028. This irked most of the Congress members, as Siddaramaiah and his supporters migrated from JD(S) just 15 years ago and have been occupying good posts in the party and the government. There has been a divide between native Congress and migrant Congress members in the party.
While Siddaramaiah believes that he commands the maximum number of members in the Legislators Party, Shivakumar has been a loyal party worker for the last 50 years and believes that High Command would make him the Chief Minister.
