BENGALURU: The joint session of legislature, to be held from January 22 to 31, is likely to push the leadership issue on to the back burner, as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his cabinet colleagues take on the opposition on the repeal of MNREGA and implementation of VB-G Ram-G by the Union government.
Many Congress MLAs said it is the norm that notice is issued at least 15 days prior to commencement of a joint legislature session, but this time, they were informed just seven days ahead. “The issue of change in leadership or reshuffle will certainly be off the agenda, especially as the session promises to be stormy,” said a Congress MLA.
A series of events -- from Belagavi winter session which concluded on December 19 last to Congress party’s ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ to the joint session -- has succeeded in deferring any decision on the leadership issue, on which DCM DK Shivakumar was keen, according to political analysts. The joint session will be followed by the ‘Sadhana Samavesha’ which marks 1,000 days of the Congress government in office, and is to be held tentatively at Haveri on February 13, and the Budget session is due to start in March.
Central Congress leaders will also be busy with the winter session of Parliament, especially LoP in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and LoP in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge. They will also be busy with assembly elections in Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and West Bengal expected to be held between March and April. Whether the high command takes a call on Karnataka’s leadership remains moot.
Priyank meets DKS
On the eve of DCM Shivakumar’s scheduled visit to Delhi on Friday, to take part in a meeting for assembly polls in Assam, where he is an observer, RDPR and IT Minister Priyank Kharge met the latter in Bengaluru. “The high command will call both the CM and DCM when it decides,” he later told reporters.
Their meeting came after Shivakumar met Rahul Gandhi briefly on the tarmac at Mysuru airport on Tuesday, and AICC president Mallikajuna Kharge on Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, Food and Civil Supplies Minister KH Muniyappa, who is expected to throw his hat in the ring if the high command considers making a Dalit leader the CM, on Thursday, suggested that Mallikarjuna Kharge can take a call on the issue. “The Dalit CM issue is not new, it has been around for 20 years when Kharge was a strong contender. If the high command makes up its mind, it can happen... and Kharge is in a decision making capacity,” he told reporters.
He said Kharge’s efforts went in vain as he could not become CM after the party won 80 seats when he was KPCC president in 2008. “I cannot say much, but it is painful that while Dalits constitute 25 per cent of voters and 75 per cent of them vote for the Congress, representation is not adequate. I have conveyed this to the leadership,” he stated. But he maintained that he is a disciplined soldier of the party and their goal is to bring the party back to power in 2028.