Siddaramaiah, D K Shivakumar at logger heads on KMF chairman post

New Delhi: Opening a fresh chapter in the factional feud in Karnataka Congress, the camps of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar are at loggerheads over the post of Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) chairman. 

The matter has reached the party high command here, with the CM batting for his close aide and Koppal MLA Raghavendra Hitnal, while Shivakumar pushing for his brother D K Suresh to be made the chairman of one of the most prestigious milk federations in the country.

The election to the KMF chairman post was originally due in October 2024 as Siddaramaiah confidant Bheema Naik's term had ended. However, the polls have yet to be held.

Sources told DH that Shivakumar made multiple requests to Siddaramiah to take a decision on holding the election but the latter cited the pending polls in one of the milk unions -- Chikkaballapur -- out of the 16 milk unions in the state as the reason for not conducting the exercise.

Shivakumar camp has complained to the top brass that the CM was deliberately delaying the election to prevent Suresh becoming the chairman.

Suresh, who met Siddaramaiah earlier this week at the national capital, is learnt to have requested him to hold elections at the earliest and sought support for his candidature. However, the CM told him that the Chikkaballapur Milk Union election is scheduled on February 1, 2026, and that the KMF chairman post election will be held only after that. The CM was non committal about backing Suresh, the sources said.

Since Siddaramaiah completed 2.5 year as the CM, Shivakumar has been pressuring the high command to ask the Kuruba leader to hand over the post to him. Siddaramaiah has been openly saying that he will continue as the CM till the full five-year term ends.

"As a compromise formula, the CM may say he would continue as the CM while he may offer Shivakumar an assurance to back Suresh in the KMF election. Apart from that Shivakumar would be given an assurance that he could continue as the lone DyCM and accommodate some of his loyalists in the Cabinet. The CM may use the KMF chairman post as a bargaining chip," a source said.

Suresh was elected unopposed as the president (chairman) of the Bangalore Milk Union Limited (BAMUL) in June 2025.  Though Suresh, a former Lok Sabha member, was earlier eyeing the Congress state president post in the event of incumbent president Shivakumar vacating the post, the sources said Suresh is now keen on the KMF chairman post only.

Rajashekhar Hitnal, Koppal MP, is also lobbying for his brother Raghavendra Hitnal, the sources said.

Raghvendra, a Kuruba leader, was elected unopposed as president of the Raichur, Ballari, Koppal, Vijayanagar (RABAKOVI) Federation of Milk Producers Associations in July this year.

With the two camps complaining to the high command against each other, the top brass have yet to take a call on the issue.

For the KMF chairman post, one delegate member each from the 16 milk unions is eligible to vote. But for winning the post, the CM's support is crucial as the KMF has six government nominees as directors and they have voting power. These nominated members usually vote as per the advice of the CM, the sources said.

The KMF chairman's is a politically influential post as the Federation is the umbrella body of 16 milk unions in the state. It represents 24 lakh milk producers spread across Karnataka. The KMF has an annual turnover of Rs 14,000 crore and it aims to make it Rs 40,000 crore in the next five years.