BENGALURU: Just a month ago, there was no confusion in the Congress camp over who would be Leader of the Opposition. With his current position as Congress Legislative Party leader, it was a given that Siddaramaiah would naturally assume the chair of LoP in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
However, that doesn’t seem to be the situation anymore. With a growing clamour against him within the party, it looks like Siddaramaiah and his aides are no longer as confident as they were a month ago.
“It is a convention that the Legislative Party leader is also Leader of the Opposition but many party leaders have requested the AICC that Siddaramaiah should not be given both posts. They want someone else to be made Opposition leader, with Siddaramaiah continuing as leader of the Congress Legislative Party. This has left the high command confused,” said a KPCC source.
Public sparring between Siddaramaiah and JDS leaders like HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy, disqualification of Congress MLAs -- many of whom were considered Siddaramaiah loyalists -- due to anti-party activities, cost the Congress its coalition government and seem to have put him in a spot.
The ‘insider versus outsider’ narrative has made a comeback to the Congress after the transfer of power at the AICC from Rahul to Sonia Gandhi. At a time when nationwide, the Congress is seeing an exodus of sorts of its leaders, factionalism over Siddaramaiah is threatening to break up the party in Karnataka and has brought more trouble.
With the assembly session set to commence on October 10, the Congress has just one more day to decide on the LoP, if it intends to choose one before the scheduled bypolls to 15 assembly constituencies in December.
While key contenders for the post include HK Patil, factions in the Congress have even pushed to replace Dinesh Gundu Rao as KPCC president.
Fully aware that AICC General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge K C Venugopal wasn’t the right choice to manage tempers of partymen in the state, AICC sent Madhusudan Mistry to hold talks on Sunday, only to realise that the factionalism within was deeper than anticipated.
Pressed for time, the party has to now choose whether it will allow Siddaramaiah to be its strong voice on the floor or the House, or split the responsibilities between two leaders.
Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah has called for a Congress Legislative Party meeting on Wednesday to decide on the agenda for the session. And all eyes are on the fax machine at the KPCC office, anticipating the high command’s final word on the matter.