Sidda CM, DKS his only deputy in Karnataka truce

The Congress, which won its biggest mandate in the state since 1989, is keen to make the oath-taking ceremony a grand spectacle of Opposition unity.

Siddaramaiah will take oath as the next chief minister of Karnataka and DK Shivakumar will be sworn in as his deputy at a ceremony on Saturday afternoon, the state’s governor announced, hours after the Congress broke the deadlock over the top job after frenetic negotiations that often seemed intractable.

The Congress party on Thursday formally announced at a party briefing that Siddaramaiah will be the next chief minister of Karnataka, while DK Shivakumar will be the sole deputy CM. (PTI)

After days of tense talks in Delhi that saw various compromise formulae tossed around and both sides digging in their heels, the two Karnataka stalwarts reached an agreement in the early hours of Thursday after party chief Mallikarjun Kharge called a midnight meeting and spoke to senior leader Sonia Gandhi.

Once the deal was struck — Siddaramaiah as CM, Shivakumar as his only deputy with some key portfolios, but no public confirmation of an offer of rotational chief ministership — both leaders flew back to Bengaluru, where they were greeted by thousands of supporters at the airport and showered with flowers. In the evening, the Congress legislative party formally elected the 74-year-old Siddaramaiah as its leader, and then both leaders drove to Raj Bhavan to formally stake claim to form the government.

The Congress, which won its biggest mandate in the state since 1989, is keen to make the oath-taking ceremony a grand spectacle of Opposition unity; CMs from Jharkhand, Bihar and Tamil Nadu – where the Congress is a part of the ruling coalition – are likely to attend the event, along with the three Congress CMs, said people aware of the matter.

The developments cap four frenzied days of action that began on Monday when both leaders flew into the Capital.

The Congress may have passed the first hurdle in breaking the leadership impasse, but it needs to respect the impressive assembly election mandate by now focussing on governance. The party has promised key guarantees – which includes allowances for young people and women, free bus rides for women, 200 units of free electricity and free grain. Politics will have to take the back seat to governance to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Karnataka.

The performance of the government will be crucial if the party wants to carry the momentum from its impressive assembly election victory in the run up to the 2024 general elections and win a sizeable chunk of the 28 Lok Sabha seats on offer from the state. And while the party has managed to break the logjam, loose ends persist, including cabinet berths and key portfolios to be divided, and the rivalling ambitions of the two men. Performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha pols may emerge as a key inflection point.

“(The) Congress president took a decision on Karnataka …He decided to make Siddaramaiah as the CM. DK Shivakumar will be the only one deputy CM. He will continue as PCC president till the Parliament election is over,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal announced, flanked by Randeep Surjewala, party general secretary in charge of Karnataka.

When asked about the speculation of a power-sharing agreement, Venugopal said, “Power sharing formula is to share the power with the people of Karnataka, that’s all” and added that both leaders deserved to be the CM.

The Congress trounced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on its way to securing 135 seats in the 224-member assembly on Saturday. Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were the party’s main campaigners and took care to project a united front on the election trail. But since Sunday evening, when the Congress legislature party passed a one-line resolution empowering the high command to pick the next CM, their clashing ambitions spilled out in the open.

Between Monday and deep into Wednesday night, both sides refused to cede ground on negotiations as Congress leaders shuffled in and out of meetings. Both leaders met Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi as Venugopal and Surjewala attempted to thrash out a compromise formula. Siddaramaiah – the popular face of the party with a mass base and a welfarist outreach — insisted he had the backing of the majority of lawmakers but Shivakumar – a key organisation man who also helped win over the influential Vokkaliga community – pointed out that he had rebuilt the party after defections brought down a coalition government in 2019.

The first glimpses of a breakthrough came in the dying hours of Wednesday as Kharge pushed for a consensus even as both camps held out, said people aware of developments.

Kharge called a meeting with Shivakumar at 11.30pm where Venugopal and Surjewala were present and reminded the state unit chief that he was “CM in waiting”, hailed his organisational capabilities and loyalty to the party, explained the rationale behind appointing Siddaramaiah, assured him that there would be no other deputy CM, and promised that the power sharing agreement, while not being made public, will be adhered to, said the people cited above.

That, the people cited in the first instance said, made Shivakumar amenable, but it took a call from Sonia Gandhi to finally convince him. Kharge was in touch with Sonia Gandhi, who is in Himachal Pradesh since Monday.

Shivakumar agreed around 1am on Thursday. The meeting ended half-an-hour later.

“We have a commitment before the people of Karnataka. Parliament elections are ahead. So, I have to bow to the AICC president and the Gandhi family. In the larger interest of the party….and why not, because sometimes the ice should break. Ultimately, there is a responsibility towards what we have a commitment to the people of Karnataka and we have to deliver,” he said.

On Thursday afternoon, Siddaramaiah tweeted, “We will always join our hands to protect the interests of Kannadigas. The Congress party will work as a family to provide transparent and corruption-free governance, and to implement our guarantees.”

At Siddaramaiah’s village of Siddaramanahundi, 20km from Mysuru, celebrations began early on Thursday. In Bengaluru, celebrations in front of Siddaramaiah’s Kumara Krupa Road residence saw supporters carry his pictures, slogans praising him, and wishing him good luck by pouring milk over life size cutouts- meant to bring good luck.

At Shivakumar’s Bengaluru home, there were celebrations too, but they were considerably more muted, with most supporters still recovering from the disappointment that the CM’s chair had eluded their leader. Here too, however, slogans were raised praising Shivakumar, and supporters broke coconuts in the middle of the road, a custom that marks the beginning of an auspicious event. Supporters offered special prayers at the Kengal Anjaneya Swamy temple in Channapatna.

The Congress is likely to induct up to 20 ministers, three senior Congress leaders said, and the two leaders may make their way back to Delhi for a second round of negotiations. As many as 34 ministers, including the CM, can be inducted in the Karnataka cabinet.

Shivakumar’s brother, Congress MP DK Suresh, told journalists that they were not too happy with this decision. “It is not clear what is the formula for power sharing but I have been told that they (the Congress central leadership) have proposed a two-and-a-half years term-sharing,” he added.

Surjewala and Venugopal underlined the extensive consultations in the party that finally broke the impasse. “The Congress president had a serious consultation with senior leaders and one-on-one discussions with Siddaramaiah Ji and DK Shivakumar. We are all the part of that discussion and he took the opinion of Madam Sonia Gandhi, Shri Rahul Gandhi, and Smt. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Ji and senior leaders,” said Venugopal.