Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah Asserts Full-Term Leadership Amid Speculation

Bengaluru: The ongoing speculations about the leadership change in Karnataka has taken a new twist, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah going offensive against the recent developments, claiming that he would remain as the Chief Minister for the complete term.

The statement led to chain of reactions in Karnataka, where a group of ministers held a close door meeting with the AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, obviously in support of Siddaramaiah and Siddaramaiah's son and MLC Yathindra rushing to his father's support, almost dismissing D K Shivakumar as insignificant.

Siddaramaiah, who is camping at Delhi and waiting for an appointment of Rahul Gandhi, has categorically hinted that the Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar does not enjoy requisite support in the Legislature Party.

``At the moment, there is no vacancy for the Chief Minister's post. Even D K Shivakumar has said the same and the AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala also said that there is no discussion on leadership change. A couple of MLAs might have said that D K Shivakumar should become the Chief Minister. But, others are telling hat I should continue as the Chief Minister. The leadership change is just a media speculation,'' he said.

However, Siddaramaiah was quick to add that he would abide by the party high command decision. ``Me or D K Shivakumar, we have to abide by the party high command. When the government was formed, the party leaders had said that we should abide by the high command decision. No one in the high command -- neither AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, nor Rahul Gandhi has spoken about the leadership change. The party MLAs opinion can't become the high command's decision,'' he said.

Soon after Siddaramaiah spoke to the media, many ministers close to him met AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, who was in Bengaluru. The ministers who met Kharge include Sathish Jarkiholi, Dr H C Mahadevappa, Zameer Ahamed Khan, Eshwar Khandre, Dr G Parameshwar, Dinesh Gundurao and H K Patil held a meeting with Kharge. Though Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil went to Kharge's house, he did not participate in the meeting.

While the other ministers refused to speak about the meeting, Dr H C Mahadevappa reiterated Siddaramaiah's statement in Delhi and said that he would complete the term and lead the party during 2028 elections to the Legislative Assembly.

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah's son and MLC Dr Yathindra Sinddaramaiah said that his father would be completing the term. ``Many people are dreaming of becoming chief minister and all the confusion is their creation. It would be better for them if they stop dreaming,'' he taunted D K Shivakumar.

Things are not as simple as the chain of events that took place on Thursday. Though there will be no leadership change in Karnataka till Bihar elections are concluded, it was obvious that the entire development was stage managed to check mate D K Shivakumar, who is contender for Chief Ministerial post and who is also in Delhi.Siddaramaiah was sending a strong signal to the party high command that he was invincible in the party and any move to remove him from the post, the party would head for a division.

Of late, Siddaramaiah is upset with some of the developments in the party. Siddaramaiah, who used to enjoy full confidence in Rahul Gandhi is slowly slipping off from grace. The first problem was during Operation Sindhoor, when he said that India should not attack Pakistan and his statement went viral on Pakistani media and social media. Rahul Gandhi was upset with the embarrassment caused to the party.

Later, Siddaramaiah tried to accept and implement the caste based census in the State, which would have upset two dominant castes -- Vokkaliga and Lingayats, along with SC left and ST communities. This was despite Rahul Gandhi asking him to hold back the report, Siddaramaiah tried to bring it in the cabinet and implement. Upset Rahul Gandhi called him to Delhi and announced that the caste census would be redone, as the data were a decade old ones.

Later, when Siddaramaiah went to Delhi, in the guise of calling on the President as well as meeting the Prime Minister, he had plans of meeting Rahul Gandhi. However, Rahul Gandhi did not return from his foreign trip. Instead, the three leaders in Delhi -- Kharge, Surjewala and K C Venugopal told Siddaramaiah in a scuttled way that his services would be required by the party in Delhi. Consequently, his name was included in the Backward Class Advisory Committee of AICC. This further fuelled the speculation of leadership change in the party.

Meanwhile, D K Shivakumar had lined up many official meetings in New Delhi about the departments he is handling in the State, including many of the Water Resource augmentation projects. At the same time, Rahul Gandhi's return on July 8, was confirmed. Siddaramaiah took an appointment with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to seek Air Force show during Dasara inauguration, which was neither urgent, nor needed the Chief Minister to visit Delhi.

However, things started taking turns after D K Shivakumar called on Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday and held a half-an-hour meeting with Priyanka Gandhi. It is no secret that D K Shivakumar has been a blue eyed boy of Sonia Gandhi and also very close to Priyanka Gandhi. Since no one from the State, other than Kharge gets Sonia Gandhi visit, the development, especially meeting with Priyanka irked Siddaramaiah.

During the last two days, Siddaramaiah had not met any of the AICC leaders. However, he took a bold decision to send a strong signal to the party high command and organise a show of strength back in Bengaluru in front of Kharge, that he was invincible in the party. Soon after the group of ministers visited him, Kharge took off to Delhi.