There are two powerful factions in the Congress government in Karnataka.
One is headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The leader of the other is Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar. It is reported that a select group of senior ministers met over dinner.
Most of the ministers were from the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities. Along with this, speculations have started that this group is trying to put pressure on the high command for the appointment of other Deputy Chief Ministers apart from DK Shivakumar.
On January 4, a meeting was also organized at the residence of senior Congress leader and Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi. That meeting is being seen as an attempt to put pressure on DK Shivakumar to keep him in his post.
The latest meeting was held amid recent developments in the 2019 corruption case against DK Shivakumar. The CBI has appealed against the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government’s decision to withdraw the central agency’s consent to probe corruption allegations against the deputy CM.
Unlike the meeting held at the residence of Home Minister G Parameshwara in October 2023, CM Siddaramaiah did not participate in the meeting this time.
It was attended by Parameshwara, Social Welfare Minister H C Mahadevappa, Food Minister K H Muniyappa along with Cooperation Ministers K N Rajanna, Jarkiholi, Jo Valmiki Nayak and Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao.
Most of these ministers are considered close to Siddaramaiah. After the meeting, the ministers indicated that various issues including the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and appointments of additional deputy CMs were discussed.
“We discussed the challenges before us,” Jarkiholi said on Friday. Also talked about Lok Sabha elections, party organization and the need to give prominence to party workers.
We did not talk about the issue of Dalit CM. There is a Dalit conference in Chitradurga on January 28 and then there is a SC/ST meeting in Davanagere in February.” Jarkiholi said he and others had recommended the appointment of additional deputy CMs and the matter is before the Congress high command.
He said, “Cooperation Minister Rajanna has raised the issue of having more Deputy CMs on several occasions. We even recommended it.
Ultimately our party leaders will have to decide what we have said. We all have to wait for the decision. There is currently no plan to meet the high command on this.” Rajanna had said that he was of the view that the party would benefit in the Lok Sabha elections by appointing more Deputy CMs from caste groups supporting the Congress.
He had said, “I am not speaking on behalf of any leader. I believe that if three Deputy CMs are appointed, it will benefit Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. This is for the party to decide. They will not take any decision based on my suggestion, but I have brought this to their attention.”
He cited recent examples of the BJP appointing several deputy CMs in three major states.
Let us tell you that last year Rajanna had written a letter to the Congress high command asking Dalit, ST and Lingayat communities to consider the appointment of Deputy CM to strengthen their support.
Parameshwara did not give much importance to the issue of Deputy CM and said that the issues of SC and ST communities were discussed in the January 4 meeting. He said, “We cannot reveal what happened in the meeting because the media itself has termed it a secret meeting. One of these issues was related to the SC/ST conference organized by us before the assembly elections and there were about 10 resolutions called Chitradurga Declaration. We wanted to discuss the implementation of these proposals.”
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