After Dogfight Congress Handpicks Siddaramaiah as Karnataka CM
After Dogfight Congress Handpicks Siddaramaiah as Karnataka CM
Congress has collapsed in other states also because of the conflicts between its top leaders.
By Rakesh Raman
The dying Congress party has selected Siddaramaiah for the position of chief minister (CM) of Karnataka after winning the state election for which the result was announced on May 13.
The ad hoc decision of Congress has left another aspirant DK Shivakumar sulking, although he has been appointed the deputy CM.
In the 224-member Karnataka Assembly election that took place on May 10 Congress won 134 seats leaving 66 for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi.
It is largely believed that the Congress government will fall in the state before completing its term because of the infighting in the party and BJP’s stratagem to destabilize it through anti-corruption agencies.
Congress leader DK Shivakumar is facing corruption allegations as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing a case of disproportionate assets against him.
It is alleged that Shivakumar possessed Rs 74.93 crore of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income for the period between 2013 and 2018 when he was a cabinet minister.
To win the Karnataka election, Congress campaigned against BJP’s corruption and highlighted Modi’s alleged collusion with oligarch Gauatm Adani who is facing a series of financial fraud allegations.
However, the traditional party made Shivakumar deputy CM while he is also allegedly involved in a corruption scandal. There is a possibility that he will again be jailed, as he had been jailed before.
Shivakumar was incarcerated in Delhi’s Tihar jail for about 50 days after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) – which investigates serious financial crime cases – on September 3, 2019 in a money laundering case. He was released on October 23 after the Delhi High Court granted him bail.
As it appears that Congress is also full of corrupt politicians, it could not find an honest person for one of the top posts in Karnataka. If Shivakumar is jailed again, BJP will get an opportunity to break Congress in the state.
There is also a possibility that Congress will implode in Karnataka when Shivakumar is not able to control his aspiration to become the CM.
Congress has collapsed in other states also because of the conflicts between its top leaders. In Punjab, for example, the open fight between Navjot Singh Sidhu and former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh caused the downfall of the party.
The differences between Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia led to the collapse of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. And now the ongoing battle between Sachin Pilot and CM Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan has assumed drastic proportions and Congress has failed to resolve the issues. A similar situation happened in Himachal Pradesh where Congress won recently.
All these cases show that Congress will continue to be an unstable party, as it is not a process-driven organization. All decisions in the party are taken arbitrarily and opaquely by some individuals who are not quite competent.
With this kind of perfunctory approach, it will be extremely difficult for Congress to win elections or save its governments after winning the elections.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He has also launched the “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” editorial section to cover the news, events, and other developments related to the 2024 election.
