NEW DELHI: After sweeping the Karnataka assembly election last week, the Congress faces a tough dilemma regarding the chief minister’s (CM) post in the southern state. The issue has arisen because the Congress leadership did not appoint any chief ministerial candidate. The party had faced a similar situation after the favourable results in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in December 2018.
Hectic parleys are taking place in Karnataka capital Bengaluru and Delhi over the choice of Congress’s CM – leader of opposition in the previous assembly Siddaramaiah or Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar.
Both Siddaramaiah, 75, and Shivakumar, who turned 61 on Monday, are strong contenders for the coveted post. The Congress leadership appointed a team of three observers for Karnataka on Sunday to get a feedback of the MLAs.
Former Maharashtra CM Sushil Kumar Shinde, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Bhanwar Jitendra Singh and former general secretary Deepak Bawaria interacted with the newly-elected party MLAs at the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting in Bengaluru on Sunday.
The observers are believed to have solicited the preference of the MLAs for the CMs post through ballot voting. Subsequently, Siddaramaiah was summoned to Delhi on Monday while Shivakumar stayed back in the state on his birthday.
Congress president
Mallikarjun Kharge, who hails from Karnataka, has been authorised to take a final decision in the matter. The party ‘high command’ is likely to take an early decision as the new CM is likely to be sworn in on May 18.
While Siddaramaiah has experience on his side, Shivakumar has age in his favour. Siddaramaiah is a former CM. During the run up to the assembly election, he declared that this was his last election. When faced with a similar dilemma in MP and Rajasthan in 2018, the Congress high command had preferred experience to younger age.
Madhya PradeshThe Congress had fought the 2018 Madhya Pradesh assembly poll with Kamal Nath as the state president. Jyotiraditya Scindia was the state election campaign committee chairperson. The party leadership did not appoint anyone as the CM candidate.
In a hung assembly, the Congress emerged as the single largest party by winning 114 of the total 230. It fell short of an absolute majority by just two seats.
The BJP came a close second by winning 109 seats. At 41.02%, the BJP’s vote share was marginally higher than that of the Congress which garnered 40.89% votes.
Both Kamal Nath, 71 at that time, and Scindia, who was 47, staked claim for the CM’s post. They met the then Congress president
Rahul Gandhi, who preferred experience over age. As a result, Kamal Nath was sworn in as the CM and a Congress government was formed with the support of other MLAs, including two of Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
But the experiment failed as Scindia, the then Congress general secretary, kept sulking over being ignored for the top job in the state despite having worked hard for the party’s victory over the ruling BJP.
Scindia felt further humiliated as both Kamal Nath and former CM Digvijaya Singh worked in tandem while sidelining him.
In March 2020, Scindia resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP along with 22 MLAs who were loyal to him. This caused the downfall of the 15-month-old government led by Kamal Nath.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan again became the MP CM and formed the government. Most of the Scindia loyalists fought the byelection on the BJP ticket and won. The BJP got an absolute majority after, what is called, ‘Operation Lotus’.
Later, Scindia was awarded the civil aviation portfolio in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet.
RajasthanAlmost a similar story was repeated in Rajasthan. The Congress contested the 2018 Rajasthan assembly election with Sachin Pilot, who was 41 at that time, as the state president. Current CM Ashok Gehlot, who was 67 then, was the AICC general secretary in 2018.
As in MP, the election in Rajasthan also threw a hung assembly. In the 200-member assembly, the Congress won 100 seats, just one short of an absolute majority.
This followed a tussle between Pilot and Gehlot to become the Rajasthan CM.
The two were summoned to Delhi. After a meeting with Rahul, experience again was rewarded. Gehlot was chosen to become the CM while Pilot was appointed the deputy CM along with his state president’s post.
Gehlot formed the government with the support of six BSP MLAs and others. In September 2019, all six BSP MLAs joined the Congress, making the job easier for Gehlot.
However, he faced a crisis as Pilot staged a revolt in July 2020. With 19 MLAs owing allegiance to him, Pilot precipitated a political crisis in Rajasthan. While his loyalists were kept in a hotel in Haryana, the legislators supporting Gehlot were holed up in Jaisalmer.
After about a month-long crisis, Pilot met Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and agreed to buy truce with Gehlot. He was sacked as both the deputy CM and state president of the party. It is, however, believed that he was assured of the CM’s post in the last year of the government’s tenure.
A war of words has often broken out between Pilot and Gehlot. In the latest crisis in the state, Pilot took out a five-day ‘Jan Sangharsh Yatra’, which ended on Monday, against his own government. He has demanded action in the alleged corruption cases during Gehlot’s predecessor Vasundhara Raje’s tenure.
Pilot has issued a 15-day ultimatum to Gehlot for taking action against “corruption”.
Pilot’s rebellion and occasional recalcitrant postures against Gehlot has embarrassed the party on multiple occasions. They also pose a threat to the party during the assembly election expected to be held later this year along with MP, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
In Karnataka, the Congress is again at the same crossroads which it had found itself in 2018 in MP and Rajasthan. Will Siddaramaiah accept Shivakumar as the CM? Will Shivakumar agree to work as Siddaramaiah’s deputy? These are a couple of questions which the Congress is grappling with.
function loadGtagEvents(isGoogleCampaignActive) {
if (!isGoogleCampaignActive) {
return;
}
var id = document.getElementById('toi-plus-google-campaign');
if (id) {
return;
}
(function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {
t = b.createElement(e);
t.async = !0;
t.defer = !0;
t.src = v;
t.id = 'toi-plus-google-campaign';
s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s);
})(f, b, e, 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=AW-877820074', n, t, s);
};
window.TimesApps = window.TimesApps || {};
var TimesApps = window.TimesApps;
TimesApps.toiPlusEvents = function(config) {
var isConfigAvailable = "toiplus_site_settings" in f && "isFBCampaignActive" in f.toiplus_site_settings && "isGoogleCampaignActive" in f.toiplus_site_settings;
var isPrimeUser = window.isPrime;
if (isConfigAvailable && !isPrimeUser) {
loadGtagEvents(f.toiplus_site_settings.isGoogleCampaignActive);
loadFBEvents(f.toiplus_site_settings.isFBCampaignActive);
} else {
var JarvisUrl="https://jarvis.indiatimes.com/v1/feeds/toi_plus/site_settings/643526e21443833f0c454615?db_env=published";
window.getFromClient(JarvisUrl, function(config){
if (config) {
loadGtagEvents(config?.isGoogleCampaignActive);
loadFBEvents(config?.isFBCampaignActive);
}
})
}
};
})(
window,
document,
'script',
);