Gap between Karnataka Cong leaders widens again in battle for CM post

Party workers were divided on the chief ministerial candidate for next year's assembly polls, with those supporting ex-CM Siddaramaiah against those backing state chief DK Shivkumar.

Former Karnataka CM and Congress stalwart Siddaramaiah's supporters pegged him as the chief ministerial candidate in the upcoming 2023 assembly polls once again by planning a month-long programme in August for his 75th birthday, news agency PTI reported.

Congress stalwarts Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar in Bengaluru. (ANI)

Meanwhile, loyalists of state Congress chief D K Shivakumar, specifically his brother and Bengaluru Rural MP D K Suresh, asserted collective leadership and said anyone can become the chief minister.

Ironically, both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah were in Delhi to discuss the party's preparedness and campaign strategy for the polls with party's national leader Rahul Gandhi, along with general secretaries K C Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala.

PTI quoted sources saying that Siddaramaiah's supporters and well-wishers have planned a programme called ‘Siddaramotsava’ from August 3 to September 3 in every district and Assembly constituency to project Siddaramaiah and his contributions, which is being seen as a show of strength by the former CM's camp. This massive convention is being seen as an attempt to send a message to the party high command ahead of polls.

Siddaramaiah served as Karnataka's CM from 2013 to 2018. Meanwhile, Shivakumar's brother Suresh asserted that Congress will go for polls under a collective leadership.

"Everyone has the desire to become Chief Minister...There are senior legislators like Ramalinga Reddy who has won seven times, also R V Deshpande, Mallikarjun Kharge, G Parameshwara, M B Patil, who are aspirants. Anyone can become CM...D K Shivakumar is also there as the party president." he said.

The two leaders have been nursing chief ministerial ambitions for a while and the gap between their respective camps has been noticeably wide in the past. DK Shivakumar recently stirred up controversy after suggesting that Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan of the ruling BJP might have met the party's campaign committee chief M B Patil to seek ‘protection’ from corruption charges levelled against him.

Several party members opposed Shivkumar's statements against the senior Congress leader that came at a time when Congress was meant to be putting up a united front, with Former Congress MP Divya Spandana (Ramya), expressing surprise over Shivakumar casting aspersions on Patil, while urging leaders to fight as one unit.

“People across parties meet each other, go to functions, some even get married into families - I’m surprised @DKShivakumar would say this about @MBPatil who’s a staunch congressman. Shouldn’t the party be fighting elections as one unit? @INCIndia," she said.

Instead of stalling the spat, this seemed to burn bridges further within Congress after Spandana revealed in a series of screenshots that ‘the office’ was asking Congress workers to ‘troll her’ by giving out a list of pre-written responses to her tweets.

Read: Congress leaders and volunteers asked to troll me: Divya Spandana

“So the ‘office’ has circulated these messages among the (sic) congress leaders & volunteers asking them troll me. Save yourself the trouble- I’ll do it myself,” she wrote,

Meanwhile, the two leaders in question, Shivkumar and Patil, seemed to have called for a truce at the party's 'Chintan Shivir' in Rajasthan's Udaipur.

Read: Karnataka Cong reunites after DKS, Patil call 'truce'

(With Inputs from PTI)