Congress Faces Fallout Of Karnataka Power-Sharing Promise: Will Rahul Gandhi’s Leadership Style Cost The Party Again?

The Congress party has successfully swept the leadership crisis in the Karnataka provincial government under the carpet, but the fire is far from extinguished, as it continues to simmer. The unsavoury episode, played out in public, has, in the process, exposed the fragility of the party and its inability to take decisions. Ignoring the elephant in the room is no solution. At best, it can buy temporary peace that may return to haunt the party, as it did in several states in recent years.

It might appear to the naked eye to be the stamp of Rahul Gandhi’s style of leadership. It is an open secret that despite holding no post in the party, he continues to take all key decisions. It might not have been solely his decision to hand over the crown to an ageing leader, Siddaramaiah, after the Congress party came to power in Karnataka in 2022, ignoring the genuine claim of a much younger DK Shivakumar.

There is a history in the party of preferring septuagenarian leaders over the younger generation. Rahul Gandhi might have been under pressure to respect his mother Sonia Gandhi’s decision in Siddaramaiah’s selection as chief minister.

However, there is little room for doubt that Rahul Gandhi must have promised Shivakumar the chief minister’s post after two and a half years of the government’s tenure. This was not the first occasion Rahul Gandhi doled out a promise that he cannot keep. It had happened in Punjab in 2017 when Navjot Singh Sidhu was promised the chief ministership after two and a half years.

The same was witnessed later in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh after the party came to power in these states in 2018. In Rajasthan, the top post was handed over to Ashok Gehlot, with deputy chief ministership given to Sachin Pilot. In Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath was preferred over Jyotiraditya Scindia.

For a change, in Chhattisgarh, the party reversed the trend by handing power to Bhupesh Baghel, while his eight-year senior, TS Singh Deo, was given the same promise.

All those who were promised the chair reminded the party leadership and rebelled when it was not kept, except Scindia, who was not comfortable working under Kamal Nath as his deputy. He rebelled, split the party, and joined the BJP, enabling it to come to power through the backdoor within 19 months of being voted out. Scindia was duly rewarded with a ministerial berth in the Narendra Modi government.

Pilot kept the Gehlot government shaky without splitting the party, as he was not willing to settle for anything less than the top post, which the BJP did not promise him. Singh Deo also came to Delhi with his supporters and made all the necessary noises.

He was mollified and appointed deputy chief minister just months before the 2023 elections. Sidhu, on the other hand, had gone too far, leading to his expulsion from the party.

These governments were on tenterhooks and always shaky. The net result: the Congress party lost power in all these states. Voters generally do not like a weak and wobbly chief minister busy safeguarding his chair rather than working for the people.

For whatever reason, there is a developing trend in the Congress party not to name the most deserving leader as chief minister. It started with Uttaranchal (now Uttarakhand), when a semi-retired ND Tiwari was named chief minister in 2002, overlooking Harish Rawat, the state unit president who had worked tirelessly on the ground.

The same happened with Pilot, Scindia and Shivakumar. There appears to be a pattern of not rewarding the very leaders responsible for the party’s victory, lest they become bigger than the party. Compared to Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah’s contribution to the Congress party’s win in Karnataka was negligible. Yet, when it came to rewarding Shivakumar’s hard work as the state unit president, Siddaramaiah emerged as the party’s first choice.

The concept of rotating chief ministership mid-term is debatable. In no state has this idea worked. The one who gets the chair first does not volunteer to vacate it, and the one waiting is always restless. It happened in some states when the two parties came together post-poll.

It is strange when this route is taken with a party with a majority. However, Rahul Gandhi, often accused by opponents of suffering from a decision-making deficiency syndrome, keeps using this ploy to buy temporary peace, without managing to douse the fire ever.

The Congress party government still has four months to go before Siddaramaiah completes 30 months in office. Shivakumar was seemingly coaxed to appear alongside the party’s national general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala when he publicly ruled out any change in leadership last week. Shivakumar has since avoided direct answers to media queries. His silence and facial expression say it all—he is unhappy with this great betrayal.

It is also time for the Congress party leadership and its “high command” to remember that skirting around an issue has never helped it. For a long time now, the party has not managed to retain power in any state. It must be something that should concern it far more than it seems to.

Ajay Jha is a senior journalist, author and political commentator.