BANGALORE: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah appears to have mastered the art of survival by winning key persons from rival camps thus effectively neutralising his rivals. The latest such move by the CM is winning over Energy Minister DK Shivakumar (DKS), once a camp follower of former External Affairs Minister SM Krishna.
Siddaramaiah is effectively using DKS to fight his mentor turned bitter rival, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and family. He convinced DKS to field his brother in the Bangalore rural by elections to Lok Sabha to defeat former CM HD Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha.
The CM also put him in charge of the Hassan Lok Sabha Constituency, where Gowda was seeking a re-election. Though, DKS failed in his mission, he managed to reduce Gowda’s margin to just over a lakh compared to around 3 lakh votes in the previous polls.
The third and the most challenging task assigned to DKS was to wrest Bellary (ST) reserve Assembly seat held by former Minister B Sriramulu for the last decade.
Asked what made the CM, once a bitter rival to have such faith in him, DKS said, “When I became a minister, I had given him words not to destabilise for the next five years. I had also promised that I won’t let anyone destabilise the Chief Minister either. I am just keeping my word and the CM knows I won’t breach it.’’
On the other hand, Siddaramaiah feigns ignorance of any word given by DKS. “You should ask him. I don’t know any such thing,” he said.
More than winning just two by elections with his help, Siddaramaiah has been successful in winning a bigger political battle within the Congress by neutralising his rival, KPCC president G Parameshwara.
BITTER PAST
DKS’ anger against the CM was not without reason. It was Krishna who brought Siddaramaiah to Congress. Soon after joining, Siddaramaiah joined hands with AICC general secretary BK Hariprasad and started sidelining Krishna and his confidant’s like DKS and Parameshwara.
Siddaramaiah, a former JD(S) leader, was always critical of DKS. He formed his own team comprising JD(S) leaders who deserted the party to join the Congress, thus further sidelining DKS and Parameshwara.
DKS was in the forefront of demanding a deputy CM post for Parameshwara and had said on several occasions that “Parameshwara lost because of a conspiracy within the party by senior leaders.’’ He was directly hinting at the CM who is accused to have played a role in defeating the KPCC president to keep him out of contention for the top post.
On the personal front too, DKS had to swallow the humiliation of being kept out of the cabinet by Siddaramaiah on taint charges.
A frontline Vokkaliga leader from Congress, DKS was seething with anger against the CM as the latter didn’t keep his promise to make him a cabinet minister after defeating Anitha Kumaraswamy to wrest Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha seat. He, however, managed to sneak into the Cabinet on January 1, that is seven months after Siddaramaiah formed his government.
CHANGING EQUATIONS
For Siddaramaiah, who will retire from electoral politics at the end of his tenure, taking DKS on board serves the purpose of neutralising rivals to a great extent.
DKS has the power and more importantly shrewd political strategy to counter his rivals. This suits the CM to take on people like Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy.Besides that the free hand given to DKS by the CM has restrained the former to make a vocal campaign to induct Parameshwara as the Deputy Chief Minister.
For DKS, the deal with the CM suits as it pushes him into the good books of AICC leaders. “I don’t want to disturb the CM. If the party gives me an opportunity, I am confidant of leading it to take fresh mandate in the next Assembly polls,’’ he said.
Story behind DKS
● DKS has been successful in winning six back to back elections despite a strong presence of JD(S) and special focus by Gowda to defeat him.
● He humbled the former PM by fielding a novice, Tejaswini, in the Lok Sabha polls.
● Known as a blue eyed boy of Krishna, he was kept out of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government by Gowda while he was forced to stay out of Cabinet by Siddaramaiah on graft charges.