Congress stays cold to DKS brinkmanship

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, May 17: Karnataka Congress unit chief DK Shivakumar’s brinkmanship continues to sweat out the party top brass, as he has dug in his heel to bargain hard for the post of the chief minister. Congress high command is learnt to be growing miffed at his open flexing of the muscle.

While the Congress top brass is clear that Siddaramaiah should be the chief minister, Shivakumar appears to believe that his opportunity is now and if it’s lost he will not get a chance to lead the government for any part of the tenure of the new Assembly.

“The name of the chief minister will be announced by evening by when both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar would have met the party high command. Deputy leader of the Opposition in the last Assembly UT Khader has also been summoned to the national capital. The Congress high command will not be bowing before Shivakumar,” said an insider in the Congress.

To the dismay of Shivakumar, the Supreme Court heard the plea of the CBI to challenge the Karnataka High Court stay on probe against the powerful Vokkaliga leader. Even while the Congress leaders claim that the CBI case against Shivakumar was initiated with an eye on the Assembly election, the party leaders are wary that they cannot have a chief minister who is facing heat from an investigative agency.

“The Congress will stick to its 2024 Lok Sabha election plan and back the social engineering which clicked for the party, and Siddaramaiah was the architect of the electoral base. Besides, the Congress leadership cannot ignore MB Patil, the campaign committee chief of the party, who worked for the Lingayata vote base, and also a Dalit face. So, the choices of deputy chief ministers will reflect the Congress bid to hold the social engineering,” added the Congress insider.

Congress communication department chief Jairam Ramesh sought to make light of the delay in picking up the CM face, claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party too had taken a week’s time in choosing Yogi Adityanath as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, while similar drama was seen in Assam where Himanta Biswa Sarma had replaced Sarbananda Sonowal.