BENGALURU: With the Congress high command not in the mood to make any changes both in the party and the government until Chief Minister Siddaramaiah completes two-and-a-half years of his tenure in the top post in October, there seems to be a feeling of uneasiness among his coterie.
Cooperation Minister KN Rajanna, who wants Siddarmaiah to continue as the CM, on Thursday said, ”There will be a ‘revolution’ in Karnataka’s political sphere in September; let’s wait and watch.” After making the statement, he visited Siddaramaiah.
Political analysts interpret Rajanna’s statement as a strong message to the high command against any move to unseat Siddaramaiah.
Meanwhile, DCM DK Shivakumar said, “Rajanna is a senior leader, I don’t know about the revolution.”
When asked whether the CM was losing control of the administration, with the party MLAs slamming the government, Shivakumar termed it a creation of the media. “There is no loss of control in the administration. If there is anything, the CM and I will talk to our party leaders.” He added that the high command representatives will be in the state soon to hear the grievances of the MLAs.
Interestingly, the deputy chairman of the planning commission, who had alleged that there was corruption in the housing scheme, had met Shivakumar before meeting Siddaramaih on Wednesday evening, raising many eyebrows. Many MLAs have started visiting Shivakumar recently with their grievances, a Congress leader pointed out.
Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah’s Man Friday and PWD minister, Satish Jarkiholi, who is aspiring to be KPCC president, said that there will not be any major reshuffle in the Cabinet but some change will happen in November.
“We met the high command leaders in general but Siddaramaiah held one-to-one meetings with them”, Jarkiholi told reporters on Thursday. He was among the Siddaramaiah coterie of ministers who met AICC president Mallikarjuna Kharge, general secretaries KC Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala, in charge of Karnataka affairs, in New Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Siddaramaiah’s supporters are also seeking to replace Surjewala as the Karnataka in-charge. “There will be changes but the high command will take a call in this regard,” said Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara.
Siddaramaiah, during his visit to New Delhi, appears to have prepared the ground for his continuation as the CM. He is likely to meet Rahul Gandhi when he returns from abroad.
Sources, however, said that Gandhi was not happy with Siddaramaiah’s handling of the issue of Socio-Economic Educational Survey (SES-2015), which prompted the party to go for a fresh caste census. The Siddaramaiah camp was hopeful of a reshuffle in the Cabinet and a change in the KPCC president post, whereas Deputy CM DK Shivakumar’s camp was anticipating a change in the CM post as per the ‘agreement’ reportedly happened at the high command level when the party came to power in 2023.