BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is growing apprehensive about Deputy CM DK Shivakumar’s camp trying to garner the support of more MLAs to give an impression that their numbers are increasing, appears to have decided to use the state’s intelligence machinery to keep tabs on them.
After the DKS camp gathered for dinner at a hotel on the eve of Magadi MLA HC Balakrishna’s birthday, Siddaramaiah has sought minutest details about the movements of the legislators, sources said. Now the state intelligence department, which is under the CM’s control, has been asked to give him more updates every day than the routine briefing, they said.
The DKS camp had indirectly claimed that around 40 MLAs joined the dinner. However, only 32 of the 69 MLAs they had invited to the dinner turned up. The faction had also sent feelers that they would meet the Congress high command in Delhi after the budget session.
Some of the MLAs, who were neutral to both camps, told TNIE that they were in favour of a change of guard, but wished that the party high command took a decision that would neither dent the party’s image, nor adversely impact its prospects in 2028 Assembly polls.
Sources said Shivakumar’s fate even upon becoming CM, will depend on the legal opinion the AICC has been seeking with regard to some pending cases against him, including a disproportionate assets case which Supreme Court lawyer Kapil Sibal is handling. Fearing that the BJP would harp on it, the Congress high command is likely to make a cautious move. The SC dismissed the 2018 money laundering case against him in March, 2024, which boosted the morale of the Shivakumar camp.