BENGALURU: The Congress government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is set to complete 100 days in office on August 30 and has implemented four of five guarantees with some success, yet there are murmurs of a lack of coordination between Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar. It is being said that Shivakumar, who was aspiring for the CM’s post, is posing tough competition to Siddaramaiah.
The CM and DyCM visited the ISRO facility separately to greet scientists on Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing. While Shivakumar said the government was set to make a major announcement, Siddaramaiah announced that 500 scientists will be honoured at the Banquet Hall in Vidhana Soudha soon.
There were also allegations about Shivakumar intervening in other departments. He held review meetings with ministers Dr Sharan Prakash Patil and Madhu Bangarappa, which did not go down well within the party, with a few complaining to Siddaramaiah. According to sources, they felt that only the CM should have done that. Another instance is of Shivakumar holding a meeting in Mysuru, the hometown of Siddaramaiah, ahead of the launch of ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ guarantee on August 30 with Women and Child Welfare Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar. Political pundits are keenly watching the events, especially with senior leader Rahul Gandhi also invited for the launch.
“His intervention in Belagavi politics during the Congress-JDS alliance government resulted in its collapse, with Ramesh Jarkiholi taking the initiative to carry out Operation Lotus. Some of Siddaramaiah’s supporters, including S T Somashekar, had joined Jarkiholi.
Despite these anomalies, ministers N Cheluvarayaswamy and B Nagendra have claimed that the CM and DyCM have been running the government in coordination. “There is no rivalry or competition between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, and the Congress government is successfully completing 100 days in office. Allegations of opposition parties are false as we are all working in tandem. Nobody breaks the CM’s protocol,” remarked Nagendra.
“Even before elections, the BJP and JDS were saying that all is not well between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, yet Congress won 135 seats. They are still thinking of coming to power, but we will remain together and work together,” Cheluvarayaswamy stated.