Bengaluru: As the leadership crisis within the ruling Karnataka Congress intensifies, influential caste organisations and religious seers have publicly lined up behind either Chief Minister Siddaramaiah or his deputy and state party president D.K. Shivakumar. Community leaders have warned of political consequences if their preferred leader is sidelined.
Kuruba community seers and leaders, backing Siddaramaiah, met at the Karnataka Pradesh Kuruba Sangha office in Bengaluru on Friday and cautioned that they would vote against the Congress in the next election if he is removed as Chief Minister. Tinthani Math’s Siddaramanandapuri Swamiji said confusion in the state should not be allowed to deepen, and criticised pontiffs lobbying in Delhi over the CM’s post, insisting the high command must protect Siddaramaiah’s dignity and his wider AHINDA (minorities, backward classes and Dalits) support base.
The seer stressed that their support for Siddaramaiah stemmed from his image as a leader of the poor, not just as a Kuruba leader, and warned that any move by Congress MLAs to unseat him would be met with campaigns to defeat them. He alleged that efforts were on to elevate “corrupt” leaders and those who had gone to jail, called for a legislature party meeting to openly seek MLAs’ views, and even floated the idea of a regional party if Siddaramaiah was replaced, arguing that he remained the only true mass leader in the Karnataka Congress.
Meanwhile, prominent Vokkaliga seer Nanjavadutha Swamiji met Deputy Chief Minister Shivakumar at his residence and pressed the case for him to be made Chief Minister. He lauded Shivakumar’s long-standing loyalty to the Congress and the Gandhi family, pointing out that he had faced serious hardships for standing with the party and had worked to strengthen it even when not formally entrusted with organisational responsibility.
Arguing that the leadership had already gone to the AHINDA social coalition, the Vokkaliga seer said it was now time to give the Vokkaliga community a turn at the top post, asserting that all sections of society were behind Shivakumar. He recalled that Siddaramaiah’s elevation was originally seen as a two-and-a-half-year arrangement, and contended that the issue should now be settled by giving Shivakumar an opportunity to lead the government.
(Inputs from IANS)