BENGALURU: Even as staunch supporters of Siddaramaiah are going ahead with their plans of organising a birthday bash to showcase him as the mass leader of of AHINDA, other leaders of the party are planning a mega show for the minorities, Dalits and backward classes, which is what the acronym Ahinda stands for, ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls.
Sources said the strategy is not to let Siddaramaiah alone to be in the race for the chief minister’s post, but also push Dalits into the scramble. These conventions will be held to send out the message that Congress is with Dalits and to counter the argument of BJP that the Congress failed to make a Dalit a chief minister.
The plans for these events were discussed by KPCC president DK Shivakumar and former deputy CM Dr G Parameshwara during their recent meeting. As Shivakumar, being the party president, was not ready to hold such shows of strength on his own, the task was assigned to Parameshwara. The party high command has given the go-ahead to hold events focusing on SCs, and the first three will be organised Ballari, Belagavi and Vijayapura. Later, Similar events will be held in Mysuru and Bengaluru.
“After Siddaramaiah’s birthday bash, it will be the party’s show of strength till the Assembly polls. The original Congress leaders will time it in such a way that these events will be fresh in people’s memory ahead of the polls,” said a leader. It is also to prove to the high command that it is not Siddaramaiah alone who is a mass leader and there are also others who have their own clout, he said.
Except those who have taken the side of Siddaramaiah, all others, including former Union minister KH Muniyappa who is miffed with the CLP leader, are likely to play key roles in this strategic move, for which the plan has been laid out by Shivakumar, another source said. Parameshwara nurses a long-held grouse, as he narrowly missed the CM’s post after the party won in 2013 because he lost in Koratagere. The post at that time went to Siddaramaiah. He also had to struggle to become a minister and had to wait in the wings for a long time.