Proposed AHINDA convention may add to leadership tussle

Amid the tussle over leadership in the Congress, a planned AHINDA convention in January is threatening to open up another front between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who have been jostling over the leadership issue.

While the Chief Ministerial aspirant Mr. Shivakumar on Wednesday wished the organisers good luck, one of the senior leaders in the AHINDA politics and Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi told reporters on Thursday that the organisers need not require anyone’s certificate to hold the AHINDA convention on January 25. “It is a social movement and not a political show of strength. It can also bring political benefits to the party. The success of the AHINDA convention in Davanagere was one of reasons for the party coming to coming to power (in 2023),” Mr. Jarkiholi, a staunch supporter Mr. Siddaramaiah, said.

The supporters of the Chief Minister want to hold the convention outside the Congress’s platform, and it is learnt that Mr. Shivakumar as KPCC president is opposed to the idea. In the past too, an OBC convention in Hassan sought to be held independently, and later a convention of SC/STs were both opposed since they did not have the stamp of the party.

The convention in Mr. Siddaramaiah’s hometown Mysuru is being projected as a show of strength to enable the Chief Minister to complete the full five-year term and to mark a milestone that the Chief Minister will cross in the second week of January. Mr. Siddaramaiah will become the longest serving Chief Minister of Karnataka, surpassing the late D. Devaraja Urs, who set the record in the 70s.

According to Mr. Jarkiholi, organising conventions of deprived and backward communities strengthens the party. “Such innovative political experiments should keep happening now and then. The AHINDA movement is our strength. However, there is no rule that we should not be organising AHINDA conventions or Dalit conventions. Anyone can do it. We welcome it,” he said.

It is learnt that Mr. Siddaramaiah has been invited to the Congress Working Committee meeting. When asked about the invitation to CWC, Mr. Shivakumar said that he had not been invited since the invitation has been extended to only the Chief Minister and not the Deputy Chief Minister.

‘I’ve done every work’

Meanwhile, Mr. Shivakumar, who failed to get an audience with Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, said: “I have not sat on stage delivering speeches only. I have done every work in the party.” In what is being seen as a dig at the Chief Minister and a message to party leaders about his contribution to the party, he said: “I am a lifetime party worker. I have tied the flag when I was a worker and I am doing it being the party president. I have pasted posters and cleaned the floor. I have done whatever the Congress party needed.”

Mr. Shivakumar also met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge here on Thursday. When asked if leadership issues figured in the meeting, he said: “None of these figured in the meeting. I will not discuss it and there is no need to discuss it. Both Mr. Siddaramaiah and I have said that we will abide by the high command’s decision. We will follow what they say.”