Southern Lights | Karnataka: Congress party in disarray as state leaders wait for central leadership to intervene

The matter was escalated to Gandhi because Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala, who is the party’s Karnataka's in-charge, is yet to visit the state, expected in April.

A Congress leader who did not wish to be identified said, “There is a lot of confusion among the party cadre currently. This is causing a lot of uncertainty among us because we are receiving directions from many leaders on issues. Even as we await the court verdict on Siddaramaiah’s involvement in the MUDA land scam, we have communicated our concerns to the high command to finalise a candidate among the many aspirants.

How feeble is the government?

“It could be weeks; it could be months (before the government falls),” said a senior Congress leader from Andhra Pradesh whose family has business and political interests in the neighbouring state. Even though Karnataka Congressmen argue that the case against Siddaramaiah isn’t strong, his colleagues in the cabinet differ. “The central agencies have found multiple instances of financial misappropriation involving his son Yathindra. So, the purview of the case is beyond the real estate owned by his wife, Parvathi,” said the leader quoted above.

Sensing that he is on the edge of a precipice, the CM has gathered his loyalists and launched outreach programmes. A party leader from Tumkur district said, “In the last three months, he has inaugurated about 15 Sangolli Rayanna statues. Last week, he installed three statues across the state and addressed Kurubas, the tribe Siddaramaiah belongs to.” Rayanna was a freedom fighter who fought against the British under Rani Chennamma from Kittur. Hailing from Belagavi, Rayanna was a Kuruba. “The statues are not sculpted or carved. They are made from a mould. It reflects his frantic reaction to the goings on in the state,” said the Congress district official quoted above.

The state party leadership is aware that a high court indictment is all it would take for the many aspirants to surmount pressure on the Congress high command to change the leadership. With the All-India Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge from Karnataka, local party leaders said almost every aspirant met Kharge in New Delhi to make a case for himself.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit is watching the events unfold closely, perhaps as helplessly as the Congress party workers. “Because of the internal disagreement between our party’s factions, we cannot capitalise on this situation. Although we believe that Congress' government will fall because of its own doing, we are dismayed at our inability to draw political mileage from this chaos. This upset our cadre as well,” a BJP leader who did not wish to be named said.

Congress’ dilemma

The biggest dilemma for the Congress party is to choose a candidate favourable to all camps. At least half a dozen leaders cutting across caste lines have made a beeline to Kharge’s office with PCC chief DK Shivakumar taking the lead. However, the lack of support from MLAs could be a deterrent in DKS’ case, party members said, in addition to his alleged involvement in many cases of financial misappropriation.

“The government was formed last May. DK Shivakumar has been sending gentle reminders to his bosses about his position. But I foresee Siddaramaiah putting up a strong fight before he relinquishes his position” said political analyst Sri Kumar Kannan.

The other predicament is the timing. With the Jammu and Kashmir elections ongoing, Haryana polls next month and Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections around the corner, a change in guard in Karnataka will not send the right political signal to party members or the electorate. A change in the leadership in Karnataka could also impact Telangana with senior ministers already reaching out to the Congress central leadership about Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s arbitrary decision-making without consulting his cabinet.

Amid the controversies and crises in Karnataka, the Congress party seems to be pushed to a corner. Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation has also mounted pressure on the Congress to decide on Siddaramaiah’s continuity.

“What the party fears most is a mid-term poll similar to the situation in 2019 when the Congress government collapsed and the BJP took over. Despite announcing unconditional support to JDS’ Kumaraswamy, the government was toppled. The Congress believes it was Siddaramaiah who was behind this move for not making him the CM,” political analyst Sri Kumar Kannan said.

Deepika Amirapu is a freelance journalist based in Hyderabad. Each week, Southern Lights examines the big story from one of the five states of South India.