SIDDARAMAIAH VS DK SHIVAKUMAR OUTCOME IN KARNATAKA MAY HINGE ON CORRUPTION SCANDALS

 

Shivakumar’s supporters through public statements are seeking to create conditions for a change in CM. All signs point to the current CM Siddaramaiah digging in and the Congress central leadership all at sea. The deadlock could be broken by adverse court rulings on ‘corruption scandals’ the CM confronts In the absence of an overwhelming support for Shivakumar and many of his senior colleagues urging Siddaramaiah to continue for the sake of stability, there is no guarantee that Siddaramaiah will voluntarily vacate his seat. After months of speculation, posturing and shadow-boxing over whether the Congress high command could muster enough courage to ask Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah to relinquish his post in favour of his deputy as well as arch rival DK Shivakumar midway through his term, the battle lines have clearly been drawn: It is no longer “whether” the Congress leadership will pop the question, but “when.” In the last couple of weeks there has been a flurry of activity: Party general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Randeep Singh Surjewala rushing to Bengaluru twice and meeting almost every one of 136 Congress MLAs, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge stating that the “high command” (meaning, the Gandhi troika of Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka) is seized of the matter and they will take a decision (on leadership issue) and the two dramatis personae, Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar themselves repeatedly voicing their positions, indications are that it is all in the open now. The cacophony of the rival camps speaking in support of their respective leaders has also grown louder, defying the central leadership’s gag order. Surjewala, the man sent from Delhi to enforce discipline among the MLAs and halt the debate, at least for the time being, has also changed his stance from, “No question of change of leadership” to “everyone can have ambitions. I don’t want to say anything more.” Ambiguity over power sharing The whole confusion stems from the fact that the Congress high command, after the party’s resounding victory in the May 2023 Assembly elections, failed to clearly delineate the ‘power sharing formula’ between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar. Though the election results were declared on May 13, 2023, it took the party five full days to resolve the bitter fight between the two strongmen who had contributed in almost equal measure to the electoral success. Shivakumar, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president since 2020, and who had won his eighth term to the Assembly, insisted that he should be made chief minister going by the past precedents of KPCC chiefs ‘automatically’ being given the honour. But Siddaramaiah, the ‘mass leader’ refused to yield ground. On the night of May 17, KC Venugopal put a call through to Sonia Gandhi holidaying in Himachal Pradesh and she reportedly convinced Shivakumar to accept the deputy chief minister’s post as Siddaramaiah was a senior leader. While making an announcement to the media the next day, Venugopal was pointedly asked whether there was any power sharing agreement which had been worked out. He evaded a direct reply and merely said, “We are sharing power with the people of Karnataka.” Since then, Shivakumar has tried to assert that he had bargained for a 50:50 formula and the moment Siddaramaiah completes two-and-a-half years of his second term as chief minister, he (Shivakumar) should be rewarded for his “sacrifice and contribution” to the party’s growth in the state. Two ‘pressure points’ Though Siddaramaiah remains adamant on completing his five-year term and lead the party to another victory in 2028 elections before handing over power to Shivakumar, he would be aware of two immediate ‘pressure points’ to step down as chief minister. The heightened activity of the Shivakumar camp to get more and more MLAs to openly articulate the ‘need for change’ is aimed at forcing the issue by the third week of November when Siddaramaiah would be completing 30 months or half of his term in power In the last few days alone, Iqbal Hussain, MLA from Ramanagara and CP Yogeshwar, MLA from Channapatna have been followed rather surprisingly, by a veteran like Tanveer Sait, MLA from Mysuru district (Siddaramaiah’s home place) who have spoken of the need for ‘a new face to emerge’ and backed Shivakumar’s claim as just and deserving. If the pressure to leave the CM’s gaddi mounts, Siddaramaiah could possibly pull out another card from his pocket and seek time till the third week of January 2026. History shows that Karnataka’s eighth chief minister D Devaraj Urs holds two records: He was the first to complete a full five-year term and he still remains the longest serving chief minister of Karnataka (across two terms) of seven years and 248 days. During his first tenure as chief minister between 2013 and 2018, Siddaramaiah became the first in 33 years to equal Urs’ record of an uninterrupted five-year term, which 14 chief ministers who preceded him had failed to do. Now, in his second term, which began in May 2023, he could be looking forward to ‘snatch’ another record for the longest service as CM from Urs, if he stays in power till the third week of January 2026. But, in the absence of an overwhelming support for Shivakumar and many of his senior colleagues urging Siddaramaiah to continue for the sake of stability, there is no guarantee that Siddaramaiah will voluntarily vacate his seat. In fact, seniors like G Parameshwar, Satish Jarkiholi, MB Patil, RV Deshpande, KJ George and Zameer Ahmed have steadfastly stood behind Siddaramaiah and they have no love lost for Shivakumar. Shadow of scandals What could potentially tilt the balance against Siddaramaiah at any point of time is any adverse ruling from the court regarding a couple of ‘corruption scandals’ faced by him personally and by his government. The “MUDA land allotment case” in which he has been accused of misusing his official position to enrich his wife with 14 prime sites in Mysuru valued at Rs 56 crore is being investigated by the Lokayukta. In another case involving MUDA (Mysuru Urban Development Authority), the Enforcement Directorate has unearthed an alleged Rs 400 crore scam regarding benami land transactions and impounded land worth Rs 100 crore so far and it allegedly involves many politicians and government officials. Last week, the Karnataka High Court handed over to the CBI the Rs 89 crore swindling and money laundering case involving the Valmiki ST Development Corporation, which surfaced last year and led to the resignation of V Nagendra, a minister in the Siddaramaiah government. It could potentially drag in the chief minister as well as he had defended the minister as being ‘innocent.’ If Siddaramaiah is found to be at “fault” in either the MUDA or the Valmiki case he may be forced to step down, paving the way for Shivakumar to take over as chief minister. Till then, Shivakumar will have his fingers crossed. Pinarayi Vijayan, the current Chief Minister.. When I took over as editor, the owner of the paper asked me to meet him and sort out the issues amicably. I was shocked to see the CM of Kerala wearing just baniyan sitting under a fan in summer. He was busy clearing files.He asked me to sit down and did not utter a word for a few minutes, his face grim. VS has a peculiar way of talking and this is what attracted huge crowds at his public meetings. In the same tone, he looked up and, measuring me, he said: “Do you know the unjust and malicious things published about me in your paper?” I told him that I had just taken charge and I was only vaguely aware of it. Again, a long pause. He called for his assistant and asked him to bring File Number 14. In a few minutes he came back with a huge file. Gently pushing it towards me, he asked me to go through it. I found various stories that were published in which he was mentioned and many paragraphs were highlighted. There were many caricatures and cartoons that painted him in poor light. After a while, I knew it was futile to go through all the clippings and knew what agitated him. I gently apologised and told him that the past cannot be undone and let us look at the road ahead. He kept nodding his head without uttering a word. He finally smiled and said, “Ok, all I need is that the paper should express regret …regret only for slanted and malicious coverage. The genuine criticism can remain. But the apology should not be more than one small paragraph. It can be published on an inside page.” I was surprised at his simplicity. But that was VS. Simple, straight forward and a true Communist. A founding leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), VS began his political career as a trade unionist and was later seen at the forefront of land struggles. The Communist movement in Kerala, since its inception in 1939, evolved with VS. He left an indelible imprint on its map and political evolution as well as its socio-cultural fabric. VS has been synonymous with the party’s revolutionary struggle, especially after his careful reinvention as a mass leader. It was evident that the ‘7th class pass’ leader was able to fill the political vacuum created by the legendary EMS Namboodiripad in Kerala politics. BITTER FEUD: What stood out was the VS vs Pinarayi (current CM) feud which began with the 2002 CPM Kannur conference, and continued through the 2005 Malappuram conference. During the fight, the masses chose to stand with VS. In 2006, the party was forced to correct its stance after denying him a seat to contest. His chief ministerial tenure was marked with political ups and downs with a rigid party machinery under Pinarayi exercising an iron-clad grip on VS. But VS and the CPM have always been mutually complementary, Left-wing commentator N M Pearson was quoted in the media as saying: “VS symbolises the emotional connect and instinctive passion for communism. The party and VS have always been in a constantly evolving relation that clash and nurture in symbiotic fashion. Neither VS nor the party could afford to give up on the other, despite intense differences of opinions on many occasions.” In contemporary CPM politics, VS remains the Communist Party’s most popular face in the state, evoking genuine affection among the masses right down to the grassroot levels. The campaigns that he chose to take up during the 90s after a deliberate makeover transformed him into a true mass leader. Except for a few aberrations like the 1998 tussle with CITU, VS was always the first to take up the common man’s concerns on a public platform. ORGANIC INTELLECTUALS VS represented the finest of the 1930s-40s generation of Alappuzha working-class leaders. All these daily wage workers with just primary education taught themselves in the trade union night schools and intensive political classes along with union organising activities, making them true organic intellectuals of the people. V S Achuthanandan was the tallest among them. In the inner party struggle during the early 1960s he was with the left trend and was one of the 32 members who walked out of CPI National Council which sealed the split in the Communist Party. Since then, he has been one of the foremost leaders of CPI(M), being state secretary for 12 years and politburo member for 24 years. He was a member of the legislative assembly for 35 years. Whether in power or out, he always identified himself with the struggles of the poor for land, wages and livelihood. Like BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee and NTR of Andhra Pradesh, VS could communicate with the masses easily and that endeared him to the common man. Ignoring short-term political gains, the far-sighted Marxist batted for a line that till date underscores how both the Left and the Congress remain relevant in their fight against the saffron front in Kerala’s political landscape. A FAVOURITE: VS, on many occasions, kept the party on tenterhooks, and was called ‘comrade with an anti-party mindset’. But he always remained a favourite of many party loyalists. He put his foot down firmly on corruption in the party and outside. Once a hardliner, VS transformed himself into a popular leader of the masses by taking up people’s issues and advocating for environmental protection and women’s safety. A tireless anti-corruption crusader, VS stood up for his convictions, even at the cost of inviting the party’s wrath. This however ensured him the unwavering loyalty of the masses, who took to the streets in 2006 when he was denied an assembly seat to contest, forcing the party to hastily retract its decision. He always continued his stand against wrong doings in the party, thereby shaping himself into the conscience keeper of the Left movement in Kerala for long. Little wonder that people thronged to pay homage to the body of VS, many breaking down. A sincere, upright and hard-working politician, VS commanded respect from all cutting across party lines. Even his enemies respected him and his words. According to former Kerala governor P Sathasivam, what set VS apart was his modest, unassuming manners. Born on October 20, 1923, to Sankaran and Akkamma, VS lost his mother at the age of four. Initially, he assisted his brother at a tailoring shop, and subsequently became a coir factory worker. Initiated into the state’s political movement by P Krishna Pillai, he started his political life as a trade union activist in 1938 by organising agricultural workers at Kuttanad. He went on to become a member of the Travancore State Congress. He became a member of the Communist Party in 1940 and was later part of the undivided CPI state secretariat in 1957. VS was also a part of the country’s freedom struggle. He spent over five years in prison and four years underground.

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