All eyes on CM Ibrahim’s next move as he prepares for his swansong

Pun is always intended with Chand Mahal Ibrahim, who once quipped that he’s a “permanent CM”.

After a long career that has seen him survive many controversies, Ibrahim, 69, is charting out a new path.

He has fixed February 14 as the date on which he will announce the party that will get his ‘love’.

Also Read | MLC CM Ibrahim indicates he may be joining JD(S)

The senior leader is all set to quit the Congress, miffed that the party denied him the post of leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council.

Apparently, Ibrahim has three options: the JD(S), the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party.

Witty, sarcastic and often foot-in-the-mouth, Ibrahim grabs headlines often.

His misogynistic humour has drawn flak many times. The gift of the gab - he once called himself Saraswati Putra - has been his greatest asset and an Achilles’ Heel.

His oratory skills shaped his political career. In the late 1960s, in his boyhood, Ibrahim began taking part in political campaigns.

“Congress was the choice as my family was associated with the party,” Ibrahim tells DH.

In his teenage years, owing to close interaction with Sufi saints and seers of Mutts in Haveri district where he was born, Ibrahim was influenced by Sufism and Basava philosophy.

In the mid-1970s, people were in awe with this Muslim leader who spoke impeccable Kannada, was a good orator, could recite Sanskrit shlokas and vachanas alike, recalls senior journalist M K Bhaskar Rao.

His mentor, former chief minister Veerendra Patil, tapped into Ibrahim’s potential.

In 1978, Patil contested against Indira Gandhi in Chikmagalur as a Janata Party candidate and Ibrahim was his star campaigner. While Patil lost, Ibrahim won his first election from Shivajinagar the same year.

Ibrahim later joined Congress and was the minister for small scale industries, labour, planning, wakf, food & civil supplies in the Gundu Rao government.

Trouble brew for him over an alleged rape case in Bhadravathi involving his brothers.

The ‘Rolex watch’ scandal brought him under the scanner for violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, leading to a ruckus in the Legislative Council. The watch was gifted to him by a UAE minister.

There were also alleged irregularities in granting licences to flour mills. During all this, Ibrahim’s mano-a-mano with A K Subbaiah in the upper house is the stuff of legend. Ibrahim was forced to resign.

Following this, he joined JD(S) and when H D Deve Gowda was prime minister, Ibrahim served as the civil aviation minister.

A former JD(S) leader said Ibrahim could “mesmerize crowds” with his speech.

“Whether you like him or not, he was among the key people in resolving the Eidgah maidan tension in Hubballi in 1994, when Deve Gowda was the CM,” this leader pointed out. Ibrahim rushed to Hubballi a day after his son’s death.

In 2008, Ibrahim returned to the Congress, reportedly because Gowda, the JD(S) supremo, denied him the Rajya Sabha ticket.

In the 2013 elections, he unsuccessfully contested from Bhadravathi.

Still, he was made the deputy chairman of the Karnataka State Planning Board in the Siddaramaiah government and later, the party fielded him as a candidate in the Council election.

Accusing the Congress of sidelining Muslims, Ibrahim is now pitching for a movement he calls ‘Alinga’, a coalition of minorities, Lingayats and Gowdas (Vokkaligas). Some see this as a counter to Siddaramaiah’s Ahinda - minorities, backward classes and Dalits. But, there are questions on Ibrahim’s relevance. Some JD(S) and Congress leaders believe he cannot bring in Muslim votes.

“He is no more a crowd puller. At this stage, more than being an asset to any political party, he will be a liability,” Rao opines.

However, Ibrahim perceives the opposite.

“I’ve never wanted to be part of constituency politics. My interest is in nation building. A good, democratic government is what I want to work for,” he said.

“I have always wanted to be a king-maker.”