In the cacophony of who is going to lead the Congress government in Karnataka, perhaps the reading between the lines has been missed by political pandits.
Consider this. Despite CLP backing claim by Siddaramaiah, he has been made to run around and wait out is an indicator that High command tacitly backing its favorite child DK Shivakumar.
In 2013, Congress gets 120 seats, Siddaramaiah elected CLP leader in a smooth fashion despite Kharge’s candidature and it was a clean cut surgery lasting a few hours post results.
In 2023, the congress has bagged a brute majority of 135 seats, but Siddaramaiah made to wait despite the self-claimed backing of majority of MLAs.
With each passing hour Siddaramaiah wears out, DKS gets stronger.
While in 2013, the then Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dr G Parameshwara dropped out of the race after his defeat in his home constituency koratagere, this time around large credit goes to dks for building the party grounds up and leading the campaign.
The credit to a certain extent goes to Siddaramaiah who has led the padayatra to Bellari against the infamous mining barons, the Reddy brothers. B S Yediyurappa leaving BJP was also a key factor which Siddaramaiah camp conveniently ignored. Back to the present, the play out by the Congress high command is more than obvious: pass a single line resolution empowering the high command to take the call on who should be the CLP leader, summoning both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar to Delhi for deliberation, creating an atmosphere that both were much in the race and allowing political manoeuvring to get their decision through, create optics that both were given equal grounds.
While in a few hours we would know who will emerge victorious, but the fact of the matter remains that the high command is giving itself a democratic exercise to name who would lead the government.
