Politically, 2025 was a year of uncertainties, which at times appeared to have an impact on governance.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Congress’s tallest mass leader with a commendable track record, appeared shaky and vulnerable, especially towards the end of the year, after his government completed its half-way mark of two-and-a-half years in office.
The leadership tussle dented his image and that of his government, but the CM was not in a position to confidently claim his continuation for a full five-year tenure. From being an assertive leader and the sole power centre during his previous tenure, from 2013 to 2018, he is now more accommodative dealing with multiple power centres.
A senior Congress leader, holding a prominent position in the government, admits that there are at least three power centres – CM Siddaramaiah, DyCM & State Congress President DK Shivakumar and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge.
The politics of dinner meetings and backroom manoeuvrings started right at the beginning of the year, and it continued all through. As the cold war between the camps intensified over ‘power-sharing’, the party brass nudged the CM and DyCM to discuss the contentious issue over ‘naati koli saaru’ and ‘idli & vada’. It turned out to be mere optics as the ‘truce’ was short-lived.
The party’s central leaders’ failure to end the debate exposed its inherent weakness and worsened the crisis. The leadership issue is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Kharge’s remarks, “the confusion was created by local leaders, and they have to settle it...,” added a new dimension.
As the political uncertainty reflected poorly on the administration, it lacked a whole-of-government approach. Some ministers strived towards bringing positive changes to their departments, while many others were just in a reactive mode or found wanting.
Ironically, despite enjoying an enviable majority in the assembly and implementing its flagship guarantee schemes with huge budgetary allocation, the government never appeared to be in total control of the narrative.
The poor handling of RCB’s IPL victory celebrations and the knee-jerk reaction after the deadly stampede that claimed 11 lives of innocent cricket fans; response to sugarcane farmers’ protest; ruling Congress MLAs questioning the government over the failing promise of development of North Karnataka region, some even demanding separate statehood; huge vacancies in government departments that depend on outsourced staff; and the delay or confusion in depositing Rs 2,000 Gruha Laxmi guarantee amount every month into the accounts of women heads of households, had all exposed the chinks in the administration, not to mention the ire over a slew of price hikes.
After facing criticism from dominant communities, the government binned the 2015 Socio-Economic Education Survey or caste census — a Rs 160-crore exercise — report submitted earlier this year, by citing it as a decade-old survey. Yet, just days before the decision on commissioning a new survey in the state was announced by Central Congress leaders in New Delhi, the CM had spoken in favour of the 2015 survey!
That apart, the manner in which the new survey was done in a tearing hurry, giving stiff deadlines to teachers, the inclusion of questions that many, including the DyCM himself, termed as too personal; and sub-caste classification raised several concerns. More importantly, the very need for the new survey with an estimated expenditure of over Rs 425 came to be questioned as the Union Government had already announced the inclusion of a comprehensive caste enumeration in the 2027 census.
The government also took flak over pot-holed roads in Bengaluru, the poor condition of footpaths and disposal of solid waste, though the formation of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and the splitting of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was termed as a major administrative decision. Local body polls in the state capital and other parts of the state remain long overdue.
Bengaluru provided a platform to launch Rahul Gandhi’s campaign against alleged malpractice in electoral rolls, and the ruling party alleged voter fraud in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. KN Rajanna, Cooperatives Minister, was dropped from the cabinet for stating that the Congress was in power in the state when electoral rolls for the 2024 LS polls were prepared.
To back Rahul Gandhi’s “Vote Theft” campaign against the Election Commission, the state government has declared that it would use ballot papers, not EVMs, in the local body polls.
Not just in Congress, the uncertainty over the leadership issue continued in the BJP, too, as the party is yet to announce its decision on continuing BY Vijayendra as its state president. By all indications, he is likely to continue. The BJP’s alliance partner, Janata Dal (Secular), recently celebrated 25 years of its formation. The party helmed by former PM HD Deve Gowda is grooming his grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy as next-generation leader.
Overall, as the curtains fall on a politically eventful year, the churn within parties continues.
