DK says Siddaramaiah to be Karnataka CM for five yrs. Why Congress excessive command cannot change him

DK says Siddaramaiah to be Karnataka CM for five yrs. Why Congress excessive command cannot change him

Last Updated: November 21, 2025By

The deputy CM additional wrote: “The CM determined to reshuffle the cupboard. Everybody desires to grow to be a minister, so it’s fairly pure for them to fulfill the management in Delhi.  It’s their proper. We are able to’t cease them and say no. The CM has stated that he’ll full 5 years. I want him all the perfect. We’ll all work with him…” 

Nonetheless, folks conscious of the developments point out that Siddaramaiah was by no means involved about being changed within the first place. 

The 77-year-old chief minister believes his place has solely grow to be stronger with the excessive command unlikely to make any modifications for the second. 

For now, Congress sources say, Siddaramaiah has purchased time by providing to revamp his cupboard to herald a dozen new faces whereas urging the highest management to defer a dialogue on the change of guard by a few months. 

On 6 January, Siddaramaiah will surpass D. Devaraj Urs’s 45-year-old report to grow to be Karnataka’s longest-serving chief minister. Urs was chief minister throughout two phrases—between 1972 and 1977 after which from 1978 to 1980—totalling 2,790 days.

“Information of any revolution or management change was manufactured by the media. I had informed the excessive command that after 2.5 years, we’ll do a (cupboard) reshuffle, and due to that these talks (management modifications) are developing,” Siddaramaiah informed reporters Thursday. 

He added that any such discussions had been “pointless”. 

By the way, Siddaramaiah was in Chamarajanagar Thursday, in search of to dispel the superstition that any chief minister who visits the south-western district loses energy.

“It’s a superstition that if I come to Chamarajanagar, I’ll lose energy. I visited right here to dispel that superstition, and I stated that my energy shall be safe now and sooner or later,” he stated.

Earlier Friday, Congress normal secretary Randeep Singh Surejwala wrote on X that he had had a dialogue with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, each of whom had “agreed {that a} decisively defeated and faction ridden Karnataka BJP, alongwith a bit of the media”, had been “designedly” working a marketing campaign to malign Karnataka’s Congress authorities with an purpose to undermine its achievements.

The occasion, Surjewala added, had “sternly warned” some Congress leaders and MLAs in opposition to making any public statements on the difficulty of management or “falling for the agenda being propagated by the vested pursuits”.

Additionally Learn: From Narayana Murthy to Mazumdar-Shaw and Pai—why business captains make CM Siddaramaiah indignant

Unwritten settlement

Analysts say the occasion is unlikely to exchange Siddaramaiah for the time being as Karnataka is among the few steady Congress governments. 

Furthermore, changing Siddaramaiah would danger shedding the occasion’s backward lessons base and in addition upset the political equilibrium within the state.

Having misplaced the Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra elections, and with its presence waning in locations like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, the occasion’s excessive command shall be in no hurry to take any resolution that might endanger considered one of its final remaining strongholds. 

That’s to not say that there was no discuss management change since then, with loyalists making claims for and in opposition to each Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar.

When the Congress stormed to energy in Could 2023, the occasion excessive command is believed to have brokered a deal between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar to interrupt the impasse. The unwritten settlement was that the 2 leaders would take turns as CM, with Shivakumar changing Siddaramaiah on the midway mark. 

Siddaramaiah took oath as CM on 20 Could 2023, and Shivakumar grew to become his sole deputy whereas additionally retaining his place because the chief of the state Congress unit. 

‘Backward lessons consolidation’ 

Analysts say a management change can also be unlikely due to Karnataka’s caste dynamics.

Over the a long time, Karnataka’s politics has been dominated by the Lingayats and Vokkaligas.

Within the state’s historical past of 23 chief ministers, solely seven have been from communities apart from the Lingayats and Vokkaligas. Of the seven—Urs, Gundu Rao, Ramakrishna Hegde, S. Bangarappa, Dharam Singh, Veerappa Moily and Siddaramaiah—solely Hegde was from a celebration apart from the Congress. 

Three had been from backward communities: Bangarappa was an Eediga, Moily was from the Devadiga group and Siddaramaiah hails from the Kuruba group. 

Siddaramaiah, like Urs, has centred his politics round AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward lessons and Dalits) and different oppressed lessons. 

He was even made the top of the AICC’s OBC advisory council earlier this yr. 

“Rahul Gandhi is centering his politics round social justice and OBCs on the nationwide degree. This may occasionally not have labored in Bihar however the minorities and a giant chunk of the SC/ST communities are nonetheless with the Congress, particularly in Karnataka,” A. Narayana, a Bengaluru-based political analyst and college at Azim Premji College (APU), informed ThePrint. 

The analyst added that the one weak hyperlink is the fragmented OBC bloc, a few of whom both assist different events or are gravitating in direction of them, and solely an individual like Siddaramaiah can cease this. 

The CM has additionally commissioned a caste census that goals to problem the dominance loved by sure communities and certain enhance reservation for socially, economically and politically backward lessons.

With the BJP and its associates making an aggressive outreach to oppressed lessons, changing Siddaramaiah is prone to ship a improper message, analysts add. 

Siddaramaiah, at the least for the second, instructions the next of most OBC communities and his elimination is prone to value the Congress, Narayana added. 

Siddaramaiah’s hyperlink with the continuing socio-economic and academic survey, or ‘caste-census’, positions him as a champion of the backward lessons inside a political panorama dominated by Lingayats and Vokkaligas. 

At an occasion to unveil the statue of former Backward Lessons Fee chairman L.G. Havanur this week, Siddaramaiah recalled his personal struggles and struggle with caste discrimination. 

He narrated how he stood up for the rights of the oppressed lessons when casteist remarks had been made in opposition to him or in his presence. “We thought training would take away the caste system. Now there’s 78 p.c literacy, however 78 years after Independence, the caste system stays. From the time of Buddha and Basavanna, caste has remained.” 

“Our social system has no course. Those that profit from the caste system, they’re strengthened. We now have not come out of our slave mentality,” Siddaramaiah added.

He’s a robust advocate for “self respect” amongst oppressed lessons, has gone in opposition to the disproportionate advantages loved by dominant communities and even determined to accord minority faith standing to Lingayats in 2018. 

In Karnataka’s political and social panorama, caste performs an plain function. It’s broadly believed that Lingayats largely again the BJP whereas the Vokkaligas assist the previous prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda-led JD(S). 

The Congress depends on the backward lessons, Dalits and minorities, and Siddaramaiah has been the face of his caste coalition. 

Changing a backward-class chief with one from the dominant group would solely be counterintuitive, observers argue, since there isn’t a assure that they’ll stay with the occasion in future elections. 

Shivakumar, who’s from the dominant Vokkaliga group, alternatively, has brazenly referred to as for scrapping the sooner caste census, standing firmly with calls from the Vokkaliga group to unite and retain its place in Karnataka’s advanced caste dynamics. 

Upsetting the political applecart for the time being may be dangerous as a bit of Karnataka’s in style welfare schemes are strongly related to Siddaramaiah, be it the ‘Bhagya’ model of welfare in his first time period (2013-18) or the present “ensures”. 

Siddaramaiah has additionally offered 16 budgets and has the popularity of being an skilled administrator.  

“When there are such a lot of issues related to Siddaramaiah and the rival contender has nothing to counter this, then the place is the problem,” one senior Congress chief stated, requesting anonymity.

Additionally Learn: Siddaramaiah’s push to incorporate Kurubas in ST fold ruffles advanced caste dynamics in Karnataka 

‘Upset equilibrium’ 

Since 2023, a lot of Congress legislators have brazenly sided with Siddaramaiah and argued that he’s irreplaceable. 

For each MLA or chief talking in favour of Shivakumar, many extra are backing Siddaramaiah. A lot of this assist is from those that adopted him  from the Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), in 2006 to the Congress, and at present occupy plum positions. 

“There has not been a time that Siddaramaiah was not given the very best place. The excessive command neglected a number of heavyweights to make him the Chief of Opposition (LoP) in 2008 after which once more in 2019, then CM twice and even elevated him to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) when he misplaced energy in 2018,” one Congress chief stated, requesting anonymity. 

When Siddaramaiah entered the Congress, former chief minister Dharam Singh was the LoP, adopted by Mallikarjun Kharge, who was broadly believed to grow to be the “subsequent CM” if the occasion returned to energy. 

Siddaramaiah’s entry and regular rise inside the occasion led to a number of seniors being neglected. 

In 2008, Siddaramaiah was made the LoP, changing Kharge, who then shifted to nationwide politics within the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. 

Although Kharge is the nationwide president of the Congress occasion, it’s broadly believed that he was unable to occupy the state chief minister’s submit because of the sturdy assist Siddaramaiah commanded amongst legislators. 

Analysts and occasion leaders argue that Siddaramaiah is the one attainable mass chief inside the Congress, whereas Shivakumar and Kharge’s clout is proscribed to sure geographical areas. 

Narayana says that the string of defeats in different state assemblies makes it tougher for the Congress to fire up considered one of its strongholds.  

“Why would any excessive command, particularly at a time when his (Rahul Gandhi) efficiency is so poor throughout the nation, go for a much less steady equilibrium by sacrificing a steady equilibrium?” he added.

One senior Congress chief and cupboard minister stated that any change in management would “upset” the political panorama for the occasion. 

Whereas the Shivakumar camp has argued that MLAs would “fall in line” if the excessive command introduced a change in management, analysts warning that such a transfer will solely profit the opposition—the BJP and JD(S)—by creating room for disgruntled components. 

They added that many of those Congress MLAs are regional satraps who rely extra on their particular person skill to win than the occasion image, leaving room for attainable defections if pressured to work below a pacesetter they discover incompatible. 

‘No foundation for claims’ 

One of many situations that Shivakumar is believed to have put forth to the excessive command in Could 2023 was to get two key portfolios, Bengaluru growth and irrigation, and stay the KPCC chief and be the one deputy CM in Karnataka. 

The excessive command complied, giving the keys of considered one of India’s most talked about cities to Shivakumar. 

Though Bengaluru had a popularity for poor and insufficient infrastructure lengthy earlier than Shivakumar took over, a big a part of the blame—at the least for not fixing its challenges—fell on the deputy chief minister.

Shivakumar has usually been focused for proposing big-ticket initiatives, just like the Tunnel Street, Skydeck and different vainness initiatives as a substitute of fixing town’s potholed roads, rubbish mismanagement and notorious site visitors. 

He had even likened the airing of infrastructure-related grievances by a city-based startup CEO to “blackmail” and dismissed issues concerning the metropolis’s roads raised by three younger school-going college students in a viral video as “all politics”. 

Business captains, like Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Mohandas Pai, have persistently voiced issues on the difficulty of Bengaluru’s crumbling infrastructure, urgent the state authorities to do higher and supply the fundamentals. 

The poor high quality of public infrastructure has additionally been used as a clarion name by neighbouring states to woo corporations away from Bengaluru.

One chief stated that Shivakumar lacked a robust efficiency report in his portfolios, was not thought-about the undisputed chief of the Vokkaliga group, and was additional weakened by his brother D.Ok. Suresh’s loss within the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the absence of any written settlement that he can be made CM.

Furthermore, Shivakumar singing the RSS anthem within the state Meeting in August left the Congress red-faced and evoked sharp criticism from the core assist base of the occasion which has been combating the Sangh’s ideology. 

In distinction, Siddaramaiah’s place is aligned with Rahul Gandhi in taking up the RSS and calling out their caste biases, particularly in Karnataka’s coastal area. 

Political observers add that changing into one of many nation’s richest MLAs with circumstances of alleged cash laundering in opposition to him has forged a shadow over any declare Shivakumar could have made. 

Although Shivakumar, as occasion chief, led the Congress to a landslide victory in 2023, there isn’t a set precedent that the KPCC President robotically turns into the CM. 

Solely S.M. Krishna and Veerendra Patil, who had been KPCC presidents, grew to become CMs after election victories. In Siddaramaiah’s case, he grew to become CM twice, and each instances, he was not the KPCC president. 

One chief stated that being rewarded for being KPCC president ought to have been the declare in 2023 and never three years later. 

“Everybody has that want. His (Shivakumar’s) followers are praying for it, however we work inside the occasion framework. The CM and deputy CM should abide by occasion pointers,” Suresh informed reporters Thursday. 

“These choices are taken on the highest ranges of the occasion. The CM’s submit will not be empty proper now. If any resolution is taken, the excessive command will take it,” he added.

There are additionally these arguing in favour of rewarding Shivakumar’s loyalty to the Congress and the Gandhis. 

However analysts say that rewarding loyalty is contingent on remaining in energy; in any other case, the occasion may face an organisational nightmare of the sort in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and different locations.

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)

Additionally Learn: CAG alarm on Congress’s Karnataka ensures sparks debate. Economists level to long-term impression

 




Source link

latest video

latest pick

Mail Icon

news via inbox

Nulla turp dis cursus. Integer liberos  euismod pretium faucibua

Leave A Comment

you might also like