Siddaramaiah Exit May Mark Rahul Gandhi’s New Congress Era
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah plays a symbolic cricket shot (Image Siddaramaiah on X)
By MANISH ANAND
The possible transition from Siddaramaiah to D. K. Shivakumar is more than a leadership change — it may signal Rahul Gandhi’s evolving strategy within Congress and Karnataka politics.
New Delhi, May 27, 2026 — Siddaramaiah’s likely exit from the post of the Chief Minister of Karnataka spotlights a clear change in the decision-making process of the Congress and also signals a departure from the popular description of the party’s leadership. Karnataka Chief Minister is widely believed to have been told by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi to quit and settle for a role in the national politics.
If Siddaramaiah were to lead the Congress in the 2028 Karnataka Assembly elections, he would be 79 years old, placing him at odds with the broader national political mood that increasingly favours younger leadership.
But Siddaramaiah in the past has defied the disadvantage of the age factor. At 75, he became the Chief Minister of Karnataka. He beat his rivals — D. K. Shivakumar and M. B. Patil — for the state leadership. As the political icon of the Kuruba caste, Siddaramaiah has been the OBC (other backward caste) face of the Congress in Karnataka.
In a state where the Lingayat and Vokkaligas dominate the political face, Siddaramaiah turned his OBC identity as a political leverage that the Congress leadership couldn’t ignore. But the script for his ouster was written before he took oath as CM in 2023. A pact that he would vacate the chair for Shivakumar after the halfway mark.
Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge in the past has been believed to have told Rahul Gandhi that he has a commitment to honour. The time has come. The commitment has to be honoured. Kharge stepped back, for seemingly conflict of interest as he hails from Karnataka. Gandhi is learnt to have acted on the commitment to tell Siddaramaiah that his innings in Bengaluru is now over.
After making a bold experiment in Kerala by backing a relative younger V. D. Satheesan (61) for the post of the CM, Gandhi has gained a confidence to make tough decisions. Dropping Siddaramaiah two years ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections is indeed a tough decision.
The Congress had lost Punjab after Captain Amarinder Singh was dropped. The BJP had lost Karnataka after dropping B. S. Yediyurappa. But that will be too simplistic an explanation for changing politics. Charanjit Singh Channi in Punjab and Basavaraj Bommai in Karnataka faced twin challenges: administrations seen as drifting away from people’s aspirations, and their respective parties mired in fratricidal factional battles.
Shivakumar is a political heavyweight in Karnataka. His Vokkaliga background may weigh down the Janata Dal (Secular) bid to revive in the state. If Siddaramaiah doesn’t play the spoiler in 2028, the Congress may even seek a sharp consolidation among the OBC-Dalit-Vokkaliga, while denting the Lingayat vote base.
The BJP has visibly begun pampering Yediyurappa. Home Minister Amit Shah attended commemoration of Yediyurappa’s five decades in public life this month. BJP president Nitin Nabin later rushed to share a breakfast with the veteran Lingayat leader.
At an age of 83 years, the BJP veteran may want political interests of his sons taken care of by the party’s top brass. But his appeal is waning in Karnataka politics, and the BJP suffers from the lack of leaders who can step into his shoes. The rampant factionalism in the party’s state unit further adds to discomforts of the BJP.
Karnataka may possibly become a welcoming state for the Congress to beat anti-incumbency solely on the basis of disarray in the BJP’s state ranks. This may also explain why the decision to replace Siddaramaiah as Chief Minister could be seen as low-hanging fruit for the Congress.
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