The Congress appears to have set its Kar­nataka house in order for now, belying expectations of a messy change of guard. Not only does Karnataka have a new chief minister but the Congress also has a new head in the state in B.K. Hariprasad, another party loyalist who, like the new chief minister, D.K. Shivakumar, has worked his way up the hard way. In picking Mr Hariprasad, a member of the Billava community from the other backward classes, the Congress central leadership has sought to blunt the criticism that has been coming its way for replacing Siddaramaiah with Mr Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga, while making greater OBC representation a cornerstone of the party’s politics. With
Mr Hariprasad, a trenchant critic of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Congress is hopeful of retaining the AHINDA coalition comprising minorities, backward classes and Dalits while the visibly religious Mr Shivakumar strives to take the edge off the saffron brigade’s stock allegation that the Grand Old Party appeases minorities.

The duo has a tall order — bring the Congress back to office in 2028 in Karnataka, a state that has not returned the same party to power for the last four decades. Even before that, there are the local body elections. In fact, the new government has to conduct elections to the Greater Bengaluru Authority by August 31 as per a Supreme Court directive. This will be a direct test of Mr Shivakumar’s administrative skills since the GBA was created on his watch as development minister. He will have to do something to address the woes of India’s Silicon Valley, plagued by perennial traffic snarls and infrastructure crumbling under the pressure of rapid urbanisation and tech-driven migration. There is then the long shadow of Siddaramaiah: many of his loyalists have found a place in Mr Shivakumar’s cabinet. The chief minister will have to carry them along and also figure out a way of navigating the tricky task of implementing the caste survey that Siddaramaiah accepted as one of his last acts as chief minister. That is not something Mr Shivakumar can avoid given how invested the Congress is in a caste census at the national level. The usual challenges of the office apart, Mr Shivakumar’s firefighting skills will be on demand since the new assignment is unlikely to relieve him of his troubleshooting duties elsewhere.