Siddaramaiah Begins District-Wise Strategy Meetings Amid Growing Rift With Deputy CM DK Shivakumar

Bengaluru: To hand over or not hand over CM Gaddi to the Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, this is the question haunting the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah faction in Karnataka, who have started consolidation of support and power distribution within the government.

A day after AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge's `blast from the past' over missing CM Bus in 1999, Siddaramaiah has started a series of district wise meetings of legislators, along with district in-charge ministers, which will be held during the next four days.

While Siddaramaiah has given a miss to his Deputy -- Shivakumar in this process by not including him in this meeting, his close aide Satish Jarkiholi is warming up to take on DCM's brother D K Sureh in the forthcoming elections to Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) Chairman post.

The meeting was conducted on the lines of the meetings conducted by AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala a fortnight ago. On Tuesday, Siddaramaiah held separate meetings with the legislators of Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Tumakuru, Kodagu, Hassan and Dakshina Kannada districts.

Though Siddaramaiah office claimed that the meeting was to focus on the needs of the legislators in their respective constituencies for the next two and a half years, two things in the list of invitations have raked up an issue. In the first place, D K Shivakumar is not invited to these meetings. Secondly, Kanakapura Assembly constituency, represented by D K Shivakumar belongs to Bengaluru Rural District and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy is in-charge of Bengaluru Rural District. In the invitation, Ramalinga Reddy name prominently figured, while D K Shivakumar name comes among other MLAs of the district. Meanwhile, Shivakumar is in-charge of Bengaluru Urban District, but no meeting is scheduled for Bengaluru Urban district.

Pointing out these `small' misses, Opposition Leader R Ashok said that Siddaramaiah government was trying to corner Shivakumar and the Congress was heading for a split if the party high command asked Siddaramaiah to hand over power to Shivakumar, as per earlier agreement.

However, D K Shivakumar was cautious while taking questions from the media. ``Chief Minister is well within his rights to convene such meetings. AICC General Secretary Randeep Surjewala has brought some of the problems faced by our legislators and the Chief Minister is addressing them. I don't have any objections to that,'' he said.

Asked him about not convening a meeting for Bengaluru, Shivakumar said that Bengaluru needed separate funds and he would talk to the Chief Minister separately about that issue. ``Let BJP set their house in order first and talk about our party,'' he added.

Home Minister Dr G Parameshwar said that the Chief Minister was focussing on the developments needed by each Assembly Constituency for the next two and a half years. When asked about the absence of the Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Parameshwar said: ``I don't know why he was not invited. I think he was not well... I heard he had dengue or something like that.''

KMF: Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah's close aide Satish Jarkiholi is silently planning to deprive Shivakumar's brother D K Suresh of the KMF Chairman post.

Karnataka Milk Federation is the most prestigious cooperative movement in Karnataka, with more than 30 lakh active members across the state. Soon after his defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, D K Suresh got elected as the President of Bangalore Milk Union Limited (BAMUL). The KMF Chairman is elected by the Presidents of various Milk Unions across the State.

After the BAMUL elections, there were elections to various other Milk Unions across the State. When it came to Koppal, D K Shivakumar was planning to field former MLA Bheema Naik. However, Satish Jarkiholi interfered and ensured that Koppal MLA Raghavendra Hitnal was Koppal Milk Union President.

Now, Siddaramaiah camp has two powerful contenders for the KMF Chairman post. While Malur MLA K Y Nanje Gowda, staunch supporter of Siddaramaiah and President of Kolar Milk Union is one contender, Raghavendra Hitnal is another. D K Suresh, who was planning to win the KMF Chairman election unanimously is now facing two powerful contenders pitched against him.