Congress signals a hard-line approach amid Karnataka power tussle

New Delhi: Finding a new rigour after its recent political advances in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the Congress ‘High Command’ is asserting itself to erase a perception of weakness by giving directions to its state units on vexatious issues like choosing an alliance partner or a Chief Minister.

The speed with which it delinked itself from the DMK-led alliance to join hands with TVK to enter government after a gap of 59 years in Tamil Nadu and the way they chose a new Kerala Chief Minister indicated that the ‘High Command’, particularly Rahul Gandhi, is taking issues head on.

The latest item on this list was a Tuesday meeting in Delhi concerning the leadership tussle in Karnataka. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar were called to Delhi for what Congress leadership claimed was a discussion about the coming Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections."

The optics were interesting as party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul and General Secretaries KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala held discussions and made the two Karnataka leaders wait for their turn to speak to the top leadership.

After almost six hours of discussions, Venugopal issued a brief statement to the media, with both the claimant and incumbent by his side.

In Karnataka, the leadership is clear that the immediate priority is to win Rajya Sabha elections while maintaining that both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar remain important leaders.

The leadership seems to have adopted what Rahul told Chief Ministerial aspirants in Venugopal, VD Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala – relax, we will take a decision soon – as its ‘mantra’. The leadership had earlier deferred discussions on Karnataka after the Kerala polls.

Rahul, who did not bat an eyelid in attacking I.N.D.I.A. allies during the campaign, appears to be pushing organisational decisions in the party immediately after the elections and that was evident in the decision to back TVK, a move that he deferred following opposition from Kharge and others.

On choosing Kerala Chief Minister, Rahul and Kharge enlarged the scope of deliberations to include senior leaders from the state amid competing claims, including from his close aide Venugopal but finally settled for Satheesan, who emerged as a popular leader.

The approach to three situations in the party provides a template that gives primacy to the central leadership’s decisions. On alliance, it is giving manoeuvering space for states only to a point but will take over if the former’s stand goes wrong.

For individual leaders, however, the signal is clear – first fight the elections unitedly and anybody can be Chief Minister if they remain popular as one saw in Kerala – to leaders in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where the party is in contention for power in the next election.