“I am not a football player; I am a chess player and know how to face the 2028 assembly elections.” This is what DK Shivakumar stated earlier this week in his maiden address in the state assembly as chief minister. The distinction the CM was trying to draw was unclear, as both games require a high degree of spatial control and the ability to read opponents’ moves well to outdo them.
While Shivakumar’s competence to lead the party would be put to the test in the polls, the Congress central leadership appears to have already set in motion a plan to change tack and bring the party out of former chief minister Siddaramaiah’s influence. Many developments since the party effected a leadership change in the state in the first week of June suggest that the Grand Old Party is looking beyond the former CM for its 2028 strategy.
Siddaramaiah has been at the centre of Congress’s politics in Karnataka ever since he joined the party in 2006 after exiting the Janata Dal. Shortly after he joined the party, he was made the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. When Congress came to power in 2013, he outpaced many party veterans, including Mallikarjun Kharge, to become the CM. He repeated the feat in 2023, becoming the CM for the second time.
In the last two decades, he emerged as the party’s tallest mass leader in the state. He carved his own niche by strengthening his AHINDA (Kannada acronym for Minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits) support base. He faced accusations of being an ‘outsider’ in the party and promoting his own coterie. At times, his brand of politics overshadowed the party. He looked formidable vis-a-vis the party high command.
Now, exactly 20 years after he joined the party and was asked to step down from the CM’s post, Congress seems to be seeking to reset its politics to the pre-Siddaramaiah era, with a focus on strengthening the organisation from the ground up, and not letting its politics revolve around a strong regional leader. The cabinet expansion, confusion over the induction of a woman into the cabinet, and allocation of portfolios indicate a shift within the party. The AHINDA factor, which has been a major strength of the former CM, is adequately represented in Shivakumar’s cabinet and the party.
The cabinet expansion caused some heartburn, and many districts remain unrepresented. The party seems to be taking its veteran leaders into confidence. It considered requests from senior ministers KH Muniyappa and Ramalinga Reddy to change their portfolios. Central leaders also attempted to placate senior leaders HK Patil, TB Jayachandra, M Krishnappa and others who were left out of the ministry. However, seniors may not be happy with just the promise to correct the mistake of excluding them from the ministry. They expect the party to walk the talk.
In another calculated move, the party seems to be projecting Health Minister UT Khader as the face of the Muslim community in the government. The Waqf and Minority Welfare portfolios, which were with Zameer Ahmed Khan in the Siddaramaiah cabinet, have now been allocated to Khader. In the Siddaramaiah government, Zameer – who joined Congress in 2018 after leaving Janata Dal (S) – had emerged as the face of the Muslim community. Siddaramaiah had backed Zameer to the hilt, but that changed after the bypolls to the Davangere South Assembly segment. In the bypoll, minority community voters significantly drifted away from Congress, resulting in a narrow margin of victory for its candidate. Since that election, the party seems to be making amends to its strategy.
The decision to induct MLC Gayathri Shanthegowda into the ministry also points to a shift in the high command’s approach. Apparently, Siddaramaiah was unaware of the decision till the final list was sent to Lok Bhavan, just hours before the oath-taking ceremony. He had insisted on inducting Basavaraj Shivannanavar, an MLA from the Kuruba community, into the cabinet. Given the last-minute confusion, Shanthegowda was not inducted, and the cabinet remains without a woman representative.
It is unclear how the central leadership will tackle the issue of inducting a woman into the cabinet while also considering the former CM’s suggestion, with 33 of 34 ministerial berths filled and only one remaining vacant. Siddaramaiah’s absence at the oath-taking ceremony on August 3 and his silence over the political developments in the state are intriguing and signal that the party cannot afford to ignore him.
The party high command not considering Siddaramaiah’s suggestion to include Basavaraj Shivannanavar in the cabinet is a clear indication of its changed approach towards the former CM, observes political analyst Prof Harish Ramaswamy.
Congress may have also factored in Siddaramaiah’s remarks on not contesting the 2028 elections, citing his age and the changing nature of politics. However, in politics, uncertainty is a potent factor. In 2018, Siddaramaiah had stated that it would be his last electoral contest. What happened after that is history now.