In the last six months, Siddaramaiah, who resigned as Karnataka Chief Minister on Thursday, had said more than once that he would step down from the post if Rahul Gandhi asked him to. After all, Gandhi was one of his biggest backers in the Congress. The Leader of Opposition is known to respect his political astuteness, administrative experience, and social engineering acumen.
And the CM kept his word after Gandhi asked him to make way for D K Shivakumar, a dyed-in-the-wool Congressman known for his skills at realpolitik and someone who is considered both resourceful and an adept crisis manager. Siddaramaiah perhaps did not expect Gandhi to make that move. Sources close to him say he was initially in a “state of shock”.
Siddaramaiah’s age — he will be 80 by the time Karnataka goes to the Assembly polls in 2028 — and the BJP’s increasing footprint across the country were among the two major factors that influenced the party’s decision. The BJP now is the dominant force in the West, North, and East, with the South the only region holding out. Karnataka is the only state where the BJP has won power on its own strength and keeping it out of its reach is important for the Congress.
The transition also had to do with honouring an unwritten pact the high command had negotiated with the two in 2023 and keeping the future in mind. An influential section of the party came to believe that it was time to honour it.
In the summer of 2023, when the Congress won Karnataka under the stewardship of Shivakumar — he was and still is the state Congress president — the central leadership had a tough choice at hand in picking the CM. Gandhi was keen on Siddaramaiah, while Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are known to have a soft spot for the Deputy CM. In 2019, Sonia had visited Shivakumar in Tihar jail, where the latter was in judicial custody after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him in connection with a money laundering case.
The party had to take a call now. In 2023, the high command had thrashed out a formula that both were not fully in agreement with. While Siddaramaiah became CM and Shivakumar Deputy CM, what was left unsaid was that the CM-ship would be rotational. Siddaramaiah is said to have insisted that if the post was rotational, then Shivakumar should not be in his Cabinet. Shivakumar insisted he should be the CM as he had brought the party to power. In the end, the two reluctantly agreed.
Shivakumar steps up the pressure
Shivakumar began mounting pressure on the high command as the two-and-a-half-year mark neared last November. The leadership, after the Bihar defeat, was not keen. It dithered and sent a signal that the issue would be taken up after Assembly elections in five states this year. That allowed Siddaramaiah the opportunity to overtake D Devaraj Urs as the longest-serving Karnataka CM. Urs had served as CM for seven years and 239 days. Siddaramaiah broke the record in January.
But the party had to honour the pact and also look at the next elections. The party had to factor in certain issues. Can the party go for elections under an octogenarian, who has already declared that he has no desire to contest again and can he be expected to lead a spirited fight against the BJP when he has nothing to gain?
The party’s inability to enforce a similar formula of rotational chief ministership between Bhupesh Baghel and T S Singh Deo in Chhattisgarh had given the impression that the high command could be pressured. In Rajasthan, the high command had promised to make Sachin Pilot the CM in the last year of the government’s term, but that could not be enforced as Ashok Gehlot stayed put. In Punjab, the Congress had replaced Captain Amarinder Singh as CM four to five months before the elections with Charanjit Singh Channi. This led to disarray in the party and in the elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept it away.
Managing the process
With that baggage, the leadership moved in to resolve the Karnataka tussle. It was not an easy decision. Siddaramaiah is the party’s tallest backward class leader in the state with the Ahinda base (a social coalition of the minorities, backwards, and Dalits). Gandhi has been steering the party in the direction of social justice politics. But an influential section of the leadership, including Priyanka, was in favour of a transition. The argument was that Shivakumar had done a lot for the party and had to be rewarded at some point in time.
Moreover, the Deputy CM is resourceful and will leave no stone unturned to bring the party to power to keep the top post.
But the leadership wanted the transition to be dignified and not be disrespectful to Siddaramaiah. He was offered a Rajya Sabha seat and a role in national politics, including the post of Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha at a later date. His interests — in terms of securing the position of his loyalists and son — would also be protected, the leadership told him. Siddaramaiah, however, politely turned down the offer and agreed to bow out gracefully.
Congress leaders also said Rahul Gandhi had shown surprising agility of late. First, the party moved with alacrity to end the decades-old alliance with the DMK and join hands with the Vijay-led TVK in Tamil Nadu. It then honoured the public mood in Kerala, overriding the prevailing sentiment among MLAs, to choose V D Satheesan as the CM.
And now this. The DK era may have begun in Karnataka politics, but it is to be seen whether he can keep the government and the heavily faction-ridden organisation together.
