Karnataka: Why DK Shivakumar's desperate moves are not helping him

Shivakumar’s long-held ambitions of emerging as a Vokkaliga leader in the old Mysuru region and occupying the chief minister’s chair in Karnataka now appear to be akin to him building castles in the air.

However, an undeterred Shivakumar is continuing to make attempts to regain his lost ground. But, his efforts seem to be boomeranging on him.

Finally, Shivakumar even resorted to drastic measures and allegedly impressed upon Chandrashekara Swamiji-seer of Vishwa Vokkaliga Mahasamsthana Mutt to “ask Siddaramaiah to give up his post of chief minister in favour of him”.

Power tussle to the fore

This has brought the power tussle between the two top leaders in the ruling Congress in Karnataka to the fore and has evoked sharp reactions from legislators and Siddaramaiah’s supporters.

Piqued by the seer’s comment and for ‘politicising’ the issue, Siddaramaiah retorted: “I am an elected Chief Minister and not a nominated CM. The Congress is a national party. The party high command has to take a decision on who should be the chief minister, not the Swamiji. We are in a democracy. Whatever the high command decides is the last word.”

Political analysts say that embarrassed by Congress’ weak showing in the Lok Sabha elections in Vokkaliga-dominated south Karnataka, Shivakumar, who has worked hard to position himself as the ‘top’ leader of the dominant community, is trying to regain his position with this move.

His recent plan to contest the Channapatna constituency bypolls and defeat another Vokkaliga leader and present Union minister for steel H D Kumaraswamy on his own turf was viewed as another way for Shivakumar to show his strength. However, he later dropped the plan without any explanation. 

Call for three deputy CMs

A minister close to Siddaramaiah told The Federal that reading Shivakumar’s mind and understanding his grand designs, many ministers, checkmated him by renewing their demand for three more deputy CMs to keep the Dalits, OBCs and minority communities happy. "As of now, Shivakumar is the only one occupying this post," he pointed out.

Speaking to the media, Karnataka minister for cooperation K N Rajanna, who is seen as Siddaramaiah’s loyalist, put it succinctly. “Presently, the chair of the chief minister is not vacant. But, positions of deputy chief ministers are still vacant”, he asserted.

Other senior ministers in Siddaramaiah cabinet, including Chaluvarayaswamy, G Parameshwar and H C Mahadevappa, too are of the same opinion.

According to these senior ministers, the CM is elected in the legislative party meeting, following a democratic process and the seer has no role to play in asking or advising the chief minister of a state to step aside and leave the post for someone else.

Vokkaliga ‘dinner’ meeting

Meanwhile, Shivakumar held a dinner meeting with Vokkaliga legislators and party functionaries. Though his purpose was to work out ways to strengthen the Congress’ support base, Shivakumar admitted that the meeting was held to find the reasons why Congress failed to get the support expected from the Vokkaliga community. He also wanted to discuss how they could win the community’s sympathy to bring Congress back to power in the 2028 Assembly polls in Karnataka.

A senior Congress leader felt that Shivakumar’s move to hold a dinner meet with community leaders was more an attempt to revive his lost image, after the drubbing the Congress faced in the Vokkaliga dominated constituencies in the Lok Sabha polls. However, Basavaraju Shivaganga, the MLA from Channagiri, stood by Shivakumar and felt there was nothing wrong with his ‘dinner meeting’.

Threat to KPCC chief’s post

Amid the internal strife in the ruling state Congress party over appointing three more deputy CM posts, Shivakumar’s position as party president also seems rocky.

Minister for Cooperation, Rajanna, recently claimed that the party high command had indicated that after the general elections, the KPCC president would be changed.

Rajanna recently reminded the party high command about its earlier statement. Meanwhile, Shivakumar too recently raised the question over how long he would continue to be KPCC president. His statement raised eyebrows but sources close to Shivakumar clarified that “his position as party chief of Karnataka is intact and there is no threat to that, as there are few contenders”.

Meanwhile, Shivakumar’s decision not to contest from Channapatna in the coming bypolls is also being viewed as a wrong move. After hinting that he would contest the Channapatna bypolls and even doing a temple run to substantiate this impression, Shivakumar lost face when he failed to clarify why he did not contest from Channapatna.

“All these failed attempts of Shivakumar to reposition himself in Karnataka politics indicate that he is slowly losing his ground in both the party and in the government. He has to tread cautiously now, ” said the deputy CM’s close aide.