The Congress leadership, after having resolved the deadlock over the Kerala chief minister, has shifted its focus to Karnataka, where chief minister Siddaramaiah is waiting for the green light to expand his cabinet while his deputy D.K. Shivakumar amps up clamour for the top post.
On Friday, posters wishing Shivakumar on his birthday sprang up in front of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) office and other vantage points across the state. Some of the posters addressed him as the “next chief minister of Karnataka”.
Supporters of Shivakumar have been insisting on his elevation in line with a reported power-sharing agreement with Siddaramaiah when the party won the 2023 Assembly polls. Though the posters put up by Shivakumar loyalists have been perceived as a pressure tactic, a section of Congress workers feels that things are spinning out of control.
With Siddaramaiah completing almost three years in office, Shivakumar knows that time is running out. Moreover, Siddaramaiah has been trying to delay the change of guard as much as he can. A Karnataka PCC general secretary told The Telegraph that
apart from Shivakumar, several MLAs are eagerly awaiting the cabinet expansion or reshuffle.
“But the call has to be taken by the AICC leadership at the earliest, else the people would turn against the Congress. They are fed up with the tussle reaching the streets between the top leaders. Siddaramaiah is trying to delay the leadership change till the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and local body elections, which are due in a few months,” the general secretary said.
Shivakumar, who is also the Karnataka PCC chief, has been claiming that his organisational skills had powered the Congress’s victory in the 2023 Assembly elections. Pressure from both camps has put the AICC leadership in a catch-22 situation, prompting it to closely monitor the situation.