BELAGAVI: As the leadership tussle in the state Congress government comes to a decisive end, another tug-of-war is beginning to dominate the party’s internal politics: the battle to take over the mantle of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president.
Though Congress has several political heavyweights, like ministers Dr G Parameshwara, Eshwar Khandre and Ramalinga Reddy to replace DK Shivakumar as KPCC chief, it is PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi who is at the centre of the emerging tussle.
A strong contender for the key post, he is learnt to have expressed strong displeasure over the Congress high command’s reported insistence that he relinquish his ministerial berth if he is to take over as state party chief. But, party sources said, Jarkiholi is willing to shoulder the responsibility, but only on the condition that he be allowed to continue as minister.
The senior AHINDA leader and close associate of the outgoing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is said to have pointed to the arrangement enjoyed by Shivakumar, who continued as KPCC president even after being made deputy chief minister after the party’s victory in the 2023 Assembly polls. He feels that denying him a similar concession would amount to unequal treatment, his followers said.
But the party high command is reluctant to allow it this time, party insiders said. The leadership is understood to have also invoked the ‘one person, one post’ principle.
Political analysts felt that the Congress high command faces a delicate balancing act. On one hand, it is keen to avoid concentration of power in a single leader’s hands and on the other, it is aware that alienating a mass leader like Jarkiholi, who commands influence across several districts and enjoys considerable support among backward classes and Dalits, could create fresh fault lines within the party. If Jarkiholi refuses to give up his ministerial position, the party may be forced to explore alternative names for the KPCC chief’s post.