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Cong adopts hands-off approach to Yediyurappa blues, focuses on next state boss
A Karnataka Congress leader said his party would wait and watch the developments given that the dissent in the BJP and the clamour for change of guard growing.
The Congress is keeping a close watch on the developments in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka where some of the disgruntled ruling party legislators are believed to have raised a banner of revolt against chief minister BS Yediyurappa for ignoring them in the recent cabinet expansion.
A Karnataka Congress leader said his party would wait and watch the developments given that the dissent in the BJP and the clamour for change of guard growing.
He referred to a late night meeting senior BJP legislators Umesh Katti and Goolhatti Shekar held with former chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday, insisting that “all is not well” in the ruling party.
“But we won’t do anything to bring down the government. It will fall on its own…..just a matter of time,” said the leader quoted above.
The Congress leader also pointed out to an anonymous letter against the chief minister in circulation across the state. The purported letter mentions that Yediyurappa is unable to lead due to his age and health and also the interference of the chief minister’s family members in the functioning of the government.
But the Congress itself is facing uncertainty as the party is headless after the resignation of state chief Dinesh Gundu Rao following the drubbing in the last year’s Lok Sabha elections and subsequently the party’s poor show in the December 5 by-polls.
Rao met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday and later told reporters that a decision on the next state chief is expected soon.
Race for state Cong chief in last lap
The race for the top post has narrowed down to two names. While the party’s central leadership is keen on handing over the reins of the party in Karnataka to former minister and key troubleshooter DK Shivakumar, former chief minister Siddaramaiah favours Lingayat leader MB Patil for the post.
DK Shivakumar
Shivakumar, 57, a Vokkaliga from south Karnataka and a seven-time legislator, had been in prominence since he played a key role to shelter the Congress’s Gujarat lawmakers ahead of a crucial Rajya Sabha election in 2017 involving Ahmed Patel, sequestering them at his resort in the outskirts of Karnataka capital Bengaluru.
It is around this time that the income tax authorities raided properties linked to Shivakumar.
In these raids, the income tax department officials said they had seized unaccounted cash of Rs 8.82 crore from his Delhi house. Shivakumar was arrested by the ED on September 3 in a money laundering case based on a complaint filed by the tax department in September 2018 alleging hawala transactions and tax evasion.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi had visited him in Delhi’s Tihar jail, widely seen as a message that the party stood firmly behind him. The Congress had alleged that both Shivakumar and former finance minister P Chidambaram had been targeted by central agencies because of political vendetta, not because they violated the law.
He was released on October 23 after the Delhi high court granted him bail in the case.
Kumaraswamy, also a Vokkaliga, too had visited Shivakumar in jail.
MB Patil
Patil, 55, a former state home minister and a Lingayat leader from north Karnataka, has the support of Siddaramaiah.
The two upper castes – Lingayats and Vokkaligas – have dominated the state politics for decades now. While Lingayats constitute 17% of the state’s 65 million population, Vokkaligas account for 15%.
Lingayats had moved away from the Congress in 1990 when Rajiv Gandhi unceremoniously removed Veerendra Patil as the chief minister.
On the other hand, a large chunk of Vokkaligas had for years strongly rallied behind the Janata Dal (Secular) of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda.
