The umpire's call: Veteran co-operator runs out of high command favour

Bengaluru: Kyathasandra Nanjappa (K N) Rajanna’s removal from the Cabinet has soured the last innings of his five-decade political career. 

Having started way back in 1970 as a taluk-level Congress secretary, Rajanna got his chance to become a minister only two years ago. Since then, staying in the news was Rajanna’s penchant.

Rajanna’s statement last Saturday criticising the Congress’ “vote theft” campaign is said to have triggered his sacking.

Only recently, Rajanna made headlines after claiming that a “September revolution” would bring about major political upheaval in the state. “It looks like the revolution came early,” Congress’ Arsikere MLA K M Shivalinge Gowda said. 

Just months after Congress came to power, Rajanna - a close aide of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah - publicly demanded the appointment of additional deputy chief ministers. This sparked off his feud with Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar. 

Rajanna was also the protagonist in several other political rows over the past year: a plan to organise a massive rally in favour of Siddaramaiah, attempts to have Shivakumar removed as the party president (a post he himself eyed) and a meet-up of SC/ST leaders. 

In fact, Rajanna publicly attacked the Congress high command after it ordered the postponement of the SC/ST leaders’ meeting. Also recently, Rajanna publicly criticised Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala for holding meetings with government officials. 

Earlier this year, Rajanna made a sensational claim that a honey-trapping attempt was made on him, and that many politicians in the state were victims of this. However, a police probe found no evidence for this.

Rajanna, who belongs to the ST community, joined the cooperation movement after completing his BSc degree from the government science college, Tumakuru, in 1972.

By 1984, Rajanna was a district-level Congress leader by the time he earned a law degree from the Vidyodaya Law College. 

Rajanna’s first electoral victory came in 1998, when he entered the Legislative Council from the Tumakuru local bodies’ constituency. When his MLC term was about to end in 2004, Rajanna wanted to run again. When SM Krishna, the outgoing chief minister then, picked V S Ugrappa, another ST, Rajanna rebelled and ran independently. He lost. 

Rajanna received political resuscitation from JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda. The regional party gave Rajanna a ticket to contest the 2004 Assembly election from the erstwhile Bellavi segment. Rajanna won. 

For the 2008 polls, Rajanna moved back to Congress and contested from Madhugiri in Tumakuru. He lost to D C Gowrishankar of the JD(S).

Rajanna made another attempt to win Madhugiri when Gowrishankar resigned and defected to the BJP. In the bypoll, Gowda fielded his daughter-in-law Anitha Kumaraswamy, who defeated Rajanna. He went on to win Madhugiri in 2013 and 2023.

Rajanna’s vengeance would come during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when Gowda was running from Tumkur. He lost to BJP’s G S Basavaraj. In wanting to defeat Gowda, Rajanna helped Basavaraj, the man who virtually ended the career of his political mentor
K Lakkappa in the 1980s, it is said.

Highlights - Rajanna, who belongs to the ST community, joined the cooperation movement after completing his BSc degree from the government science college, Tumakuru, in 1972.