Bengaluru. The politics of Karnataka is once again hot and this time the fire is within the Congress government. Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivkumar gave such a statement on Tuesday which gave new fuel to the ongoing power-sharing discussions. He clearly said that he does not want to talk openly on a sensitive issue like changing the Chief Minister because it is a ‘secret agreement between four-five people of the party’ and he ‘trusts his conscience’.
This statement of Shivakumar has come at a time when the Siddaramaiah government has reached the midpoint of its five-year tenure. And as soon as this date came, the discussion again intensified about the Siddaramaiah-Shivkumar power-sharing agreement allegedly made in 2023, according to which there is talk of change of leadership after half the tenure of the government. D.K. Shivkumar said that he does not want to embarrass the party in any way nor do he want to take any such step which would weaken the Congress, but his clear indication is that something big is going on internally and this is not just ‘speculation’.
Earlier in the day, Shivakumar had not met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was in the city for the last few days, amid the ongoing power struggle in the state. However, he accompanied Kharge to the airport when he left for the national capital.
When Shivkumar was asked whether he was certain to become the Chief Minister, he said, “I don’t know. I have not asked to be made the Chief Minister. This is a secret agreement between five-six of us. I do not want to say anything on this publicly. I trust my conscience and we should work accordingly. I do not want to embarrass the party in any way nor weaken it. If there is a party, then we are there, if there are workers, then we are there.”
Speaking to reporters in his home constituency Kanakapura, he said, “The Chief Minister has spoken. He is a senior leader and valuable to the party. He has been the Chief Minister for a total of 7.5 years (including his earlier tenure of five years from 2013 to 2018).” Siddaramaiah has said that he will also present the next budget. He said, “I am very happy. He has worked as an opposition leader before. He has also worked for the party and built it. We all should work together with the goal of 2028 (Assembly elections) and 2029 (Lok Sabha elections).”
When Shivakumar was told that the people of Bengaluru South (earlier Ramnagar) had given all four seats of the district to the Congress to make him the Chief Minister, he said that he had not asked for anything from anyone. He said, “At the time of elections, I had gone to all the constituencies, including the constituency of Mahadevappa (who is a minister close to Siddaramaiah), and had appealed to the people there to vote for me after seeing my face. I had said the same everywhere in Mandya too. I do not dispute this. People have voted. In all the 224 assembly constituencies, workers have worked much harder than us and have played an important role in bringing this government to power. MLAs and ministers are just its beneficiaries.”
On the question regarding the MLAs in his support going to Delhi and meeting the high command and raising the demand of making him the Chief Minister, Shivkumar said that he has no information about it, and it is possible that he is trying to become a minister. He said, “I have neither called nor talked to any of them (MLAs). I am not even asking them why they went. I don’t need that.”
