Bengaluru: Finally the Karnataka Elections have ended, and Congress Party has won with a fantastic majority. However, now the High Command of the party faces the crucial question of who who will be the Chief Minister? Is it D. K. Shivakumar? or Siddaramaiah?
Though the win was smooth, the road ahead for Congress is not as smooth in Karnataka even after getting a clear majority. Karnataka Congress is divided into two factions of Siddaramaiah and D. K. Shivkumar and both have indirectly declared themselves as Chief Ministerial candidates.
While Siddaramaiah who is a mass leader has carefully influenced the ticket distribution in such a way that now he has support of at least half of Congress MLAs, who are with him now in Bengaluru.
And even if Gandhi family wants to give an opportunity to another leader, it’s not easy. Moreover, D. K. Shivkumar Rahul Gandhi’s favourite. Shivakumar’s contribution for election win through money, management and power cannot be negated. This, if DKS is selected as CM then he is the first Vokkaliga to be a CM after 24 years.
Also, it is a known fact to the Congress supporter at ground level that if it was not for Shivakumar, Congress wouldn’t have won this election. He also hinted at the same in his recent press conference. If not given CM’s post he is sure to rebel.
Having said this, Siddaramaiah has popularity and is a mass leader, the fan base which Shivakumar clearly lacks. However, Shivakumar’s strength is in uniting the party workers. So both are important to the party
In the light of the situation, Surjewala, Gehlot and Kamalnath have already rushed to Karnataka to pacify both leaders and take the situation under control and prohibited any kind of sloganeering in favour of any individual by any Congress worker. When Mallikarjuna Kharge was asked about who would be the Chief Minister of Karnataka, he said “High Command will decide” despite being the Party President.
Now irrespective of who becomes the Chief Minister of Karnataka, one thing is for sure that if neglected the other would rebel for sure. One would not be surprised if resort politics starts soon in Congress to save their MLAs from the opposite faction of the same party.