THE Congress party is effecting a smooth leadership transition in Karnataka, where a power-shift in its favour in 2023 provided the party the moral courage to reassert its relevance in national politics. Now, veteran Siddaramaiah moves aside and his deputy, DK Shivakumar, is tipped to take charge as the chief minister as per a decision taken by party leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi. This was in the coming for the past five months, after Siddaramaiah completed half his term. Shivkumar came upfront to press the high command with a narrative that he had been promised the CM post for the second half of the present government’s five-year term. The high command asked him to hold on, as important assembly polls in five provinces were to take place in April-May, after which a decision could be announced. The assembly polls reinforced the Congress confidence in the South as the tricolour party won one more state, Kerala.
Karnataka was for long the saffron feather on the BJP’s southern cap. When other states in the region kept the party at a distance, the BJP managed to wrest power in Karnataka repeatedly. The 2023 assembly polls brought the curtains down, albeit temporarily, on the BJP’s dominance. The Congress seized power with the collective efforts of Siddaramaiah – who championed the ‘Ahinda’ cause through a socio-political unity of the BCs, Dalits and Muslims; and of DK, who was influential among the urban middle class, the elite and the rich. Put together, the two formed a formidable political force, which was supplemented with an electoral outreach by the Congress offering free bus travel for women, monthly doles for them, free gas for cooking etc. The BJP, however, recovered from its defeat by fashioning an alliance with the third force in politics – the JD(S) of former prime minister Deve Gowda and his son HD Kumaraswamy. This alliance outwitted the Congress in the 2024 parliament polls by winning 19 of the 28 LS seats, leaving just 9 for the Congress.
The Congress is mindful of the fact that the 2028 assembly polls and the 2029 parliament polls in Karnataka could be won only by the collective assertion of the Congress through a more feel-fresh governmental performance. The urban votes that the BJP mobilized need to be turned to its favour while Siddaramaiah’s socially powerful segments are retained with the party. The outgoing chief minister will not be left high and dry. He would get a Rajya Sabha nomination and a prominent seat in the high command. Siddaramaiah is already at 78 and chances are that his son, currently an MLC of the Congress party, is “fairly” accommodated in the new government. Dapper DK at 64 is “resourceful” and hence a darling of the media. The BJP, however, is bound to use its full resources to seize power in the next polls. The party’s image got tainted by the wayward styles of its chief minister BS Yediyurappa. The installation of a new chief minister too had failed to uplift its image in the state. But, its resounding success in the parliament polls gives the party fresh hope, thanks also to its alliance with the JDS.
