After BJP, Congress battles infighting, power tussle over Karnataka CM face

Bengaluru Far from capitalizing the growing rift within the Karnataka BJP over leadership change, the Congress in the state too finds itself in a similar position with reports of infighting emerging from within their party ranks over the chief ministerial candidate for the 2023 assembly polls

Bengaluru Far from capitalizing the growing rift within the Karnataka BJP over leadership change, the Congress in the state too finds itself in a similar position with reports of infighting emerging from within their party ranks over the chief ministerial candidate for the 2023 assembly polls.

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While discord between party president DK Shivakumar and opposition leader Siddaramiah is no secret, however, those who side with the leaders have unleashed a war of words on the probable Congress’s chief ministerial candidate, two years before the state heads to the polls.

Zameer Ahmed Khan, the Congress legislator from Chamarajapet in Bengaluru, who continues to moot Siddaramaiah’s name has irked party president, Shivakumar, who also nurses the ambitions for the top job in the state.

Though Khan has clarified that the statements were his “own opinion”, Shivakumar on Saturday issued a warning saying that everyone in the party should remain in their limits.

The Congress has shown some signs of revival in recent months in the Belagavi and Maski bypolls held on April 17 as well as elections in urban local bodies ,the results of which was announced on May 1. .

“There is a wave in favour of the Congress and such statements give room for growth of confusion,” R Dhruvanarayana, the working president of the party said on Sunday.

Though legislators are trying to brush off the incident, they are wary that the current problems could get bigger over the next few months, making it harder for the Congress to regroup and prepare for the elections. However, they admit that the clash is due to the nursing of ambitions for the top job.

“This is his best chance and he has never been closer to the opportunity than now,” said one party legislator on Sunday, referring to Shivakumar.

Since Siddaramaiah joined the Congress in 2006, he has been at the helm of affairs irrespective of who holds the post of state president, making it harder for those who may not endorse him as the undisputed leader within the party.

The Congress has faced similar problems in Rajasthan where the camps headed by chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot have been at each other for almost two years now. Similarly, in Punjab, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu have openly aired their differences.

The leader has countered Shivakumar on several occasions, according to people aware of the developments.

“This is how he (Siddaramaiah) functions,” said the legislator cited above.

People aware of the developments said that Shivakumar has tried to bury the hatchet with Siddaramaiah, but with little success as the latter continues to consolidate his support base.

Despite the presence of senior leaders in the Congress, the party backed Siddaramaiah in 2013 for the post of chief minister.

Siddaramaiah had stormed to power on the back of the AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) movement and challenged the dominant caste theory prevalent in the state. The Lingayats and Vokkaligas, believed to be the two largest caste groups in the state, have their axes to grind against Siddaramaiah, people aware of the developments said.

The decision to accord a separate religious status to Lingayats that left out the Veerashaivas was seen as an attempt to break the community which cost Siddaramaiah the 2018 elections.

The commissioning of a caste-census in 2015 (unreleased till date) was also seen as an attempt by Siddaramaiah to challenge the political dominance enjoyed by the two communities.

Siddaramaiah is from the Kuruba community that backed him in 2013. But leaders like KS Eshwarappa, a senior BJP leader and minister in the Yediyurappa government, are trying to cut into this.

“Caste groups support those in power,” said a senior BJP legislator to HT during an interaction last week.

The legislator said that just because a person is from a community, he does not become their leader. He applied it to Yediyurappa who has so far enjoyed the support of the Lingayats and Siddaramaiah, who is believed to have the support of the Kuruba community.

Analysts add that the Congress and BJP have faced a problem in growth of second rung of leaders as people like Siddaramaiah and Yediyurappa have turned into “local chieftains”. The two leaders grew powerful when their respective central leadership was at the weakest, consolidating their clout and resisting any attempts to replace them.

While the Congress may have faced a rout in most states of the country, Karnataka has been a steady source of hope where it has enjoyed power for 12 years since 2000, of which nine are on its own and the remaining in partnership with Janata Dal (Secular).

Siddaramaiah is among a handful of chief ministers in the state’s history to have completed five full years in power between 2013 and 2018.

Though the question of chief ministerial candidate does not arise at this juncture for a party that rarely announces a face before the results, the minor scuffle, people aware of the developments said, could snowball into a larger problem for the Congress in Karnataka.

With volatility continuing within the BJP on the issue of change of leadership and fresh charges of corruption on chief minister BS Yediyurappa and his son, levelled by its own partymen, the Congress stands a chance to regroup from their rivals discord to its own advantage.

As Eshwarappa said on June 16, “We have problems and we will find solutions for them. They (Congress) should have ideally exploited the problems but where are they.”