BENGALURU: As AICC General Secretary and state in-charge K C Venugopal sat down to speak to the media, after a hectic three-day consultations with state leaders and legislators midweek, the beaming visages of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC President G Parameshwara, who flanked Venugopal, was what drew attention.
Both leaders were appreciated in due measure by Venugopal, leaving it to anyone’s guess about who would prevail when it comes to selection of KPCC President. Venugopal, who said party was ‘united’, has promised a decision by the end of this month.
After the win in the two by-poll seats at Nanjangud and Gundlupet, the Congress has been quick to claim that lack of infighting in the party ensured they were able to work together and win the elections. But since the results, the behind-the-scene machinations have only increased.
Siddaramaiah is keen to push Water Resources Minister M B Patil, a Lingayat to the post as he is Siddaramaiah’s man and very resourceful. Ironically, the CM had dropped S R Patil, a senior Lingayat leader from the Cabinet last year on the assurance that he would be made KPCC President. But it seems that Siddaramaiah’s favour now is towards the younger M B Patil who is considered more dynamic.
However, Parameshwara, a dalit has no intention of going meekly. Any day, he is willing to give up his Home portfolio and continue another term as KPCC President.
The third candidate in the fray is Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, who is a Vokkaliga. Many in the party admit that he is the one capable of taking on BJP’s Mission 150 and leading the party ahead. But Shivakumar has too many enemies in the party, including Siddaramaiah and Parameshwara, who are rightly worried that he would overtake them both, if allowed to be the helmsman.
While Venugopal was assuring the media that there were only minor differences in the party, supporters of Parameshwara were busy distributing pamphlets under his nose, claiming that changing to a Lingayat or Vokkaliga leader would be disastrous and it was only Parameshwara, a dalit, who would be able to ensure the party’s victory.
They also claimed that Siddaramaiah engineered Parameshwara’s defeat in the 2013 polls, to ensure that he would be the CM candidate and there was a deep mistrust between the two since. Parameshwara, whose refrain has been that the high command trusts his abilities to give him two posts (that of Home and KPCC President), is not as confident as he seems.