Tussle on leadership intensifies between two top leaders

Differences between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy and KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar grew sharper, as the faction of MLAs backing the latter plan to demonstrate its strength before the party high command to bolster their leader’s claim to the Chief Minister’s post.

The faction has appealed to the party high command more than once to take decisive action to honor the much-talked-about power-sharing pact that was apparently arrived at during the formation of the government in May, 2023.

With many MLAs loyal to Mr. Shivakumar planning to visit New Delhi in the next couple of days, it appears to be an intensification of the leadership tussle, as the Congress government completed the first half of its five-year term on November 20.

Parading MLAs?

Sources in the Congress claimed that Mr. Shivakumar has already secured the signatures of more than 50 Congress MLAs supporting him, and he has decided to parade the legislators before the party high command for bargaining hard and making all-out efforts to secure the top post this time as per the informal agreement on power sharing held in May 2023.

Sources also hinted that “any political development” was possible if the party high command declines to take firm action in the next few days.

Meanwhile, in an apparent attempt to increase the strength of MLAs backing him, Mr. Shivakumar visited the Parappana Agrahara central jail in the city on Friday to meet two Congress MLAs — Vinay Kulkarni and K.C. Veerendra ‘Puppy’. While the former is in jail for alleged involvement in a murder case, the latter is imprisoned on account of alleged involvement in an illegal online and offline betting case.

In another development, Mr. Siddaramaiah categorically said he would continue as the Chief Minister and present the next two State Budgets and ruled out a leadership change.

In order to calm the situation, AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge is expected to hold talks with Mr. Shivakumar and his brother D.K. Suresh, a former MP. Mr. Siddaramaiah already said he would call on Mr. Kharge in Bengaluru on Saturday.

Delhi visits

To put pressure on the party’s Central leaders, sources said that many MLAs backing the Deputy Chief Minister are expected to go to Delhi on Saturday or Sunday. Already six MLAs and a couple of MLCs are in Delhi, and they held the first round of talks with Mr. Kharge and AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal on Thursday night.

Meanwhile, MLA for Ramanagara Iqbal Hussain said he would catch the flight to Delhi on Saturday along with a few other legislators. Mr. Hussain, who publicly backed Mr. Shivakumar to replace Mr. Siddaramaiah as Chief Minister, reportedly said that Mr. Kharge had sought the views of legislators backing Mr. Shivakumar and in turn he would consult the party’s top leaders on the matter.

MLAs H.C. Balakrishna (Magadi) and K.M. Uday (Maddur), both belonging to the Vokkaliga community, have openly backed Mr. Shivakumar and urged the high command to provide clarity on the issue of leadership. Both lawmakers are expected to go to Delhi on Saturday.

Though Mr. Shivakumar downplayed the matter, claiming legislators are visiting the national capital to seek ministerial berths during the next Cabinet reshuffle, sources said that the loyalists of the KPCC chief have planned to adopt an “aggressive strategy” to put pressure on the high command to replace Mr. Siddaramaiah.

Dinner meeting

To evolve a counter-strategy to Mr. Shivakumar, the faction backing Mr. Siddaramaiah, including Ministers G. Parameshwara, H.C. Mahadevappa, Dinesh Gundu Rao and former Minister K.N. Rajanna, held a dinner meeting at Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi’s residence on Thursday night.