JOIN USNow, a tug of war between Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah on Congress state unit rejig
Amid a tussle between Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President D K Shivakumar and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on projecting the next Chief Ministerial candidate, another tug of war has begun on the appointment of new office-bearers for the state unit.
While Shivakumar wanted to remove all the existing office-bearers, mostly district, taluk and block presidents and different wing heads, and bring "fresh faces", Siddaramaiah was resisting it.
Both powerful leaders — who are hoping to bring the party to power in Karnataka by taking advantage of dissident activities in BJP and public anger against ruling dispensation in handling Covid-19 pandemic — have started preparing the ground for mobilising support at the grassroots level.
Shivakumar, who is a strong contender for the Chief Minister's post, landed in Delhi two days ago and met party leaders including Rahul Gandhi with the plea to stop leaders from projecting Siddaramaiah as the next CM.
He also sought permission from the party top brass to reshuffle the state unit. In a bid to counter Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah is also expected to come to the national capital soon to meet party high command leaders.
While Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has been insisting that MLAs or MP candidates should be fielded based on recommendations from district and block levels instead of state level, putting their own favourite individuals as local units heads is key for any leader to ensure his loyalists get party tickets for any elections, a Congress leader said.
Shivakumar, who is keen on removing the existing district and block unit heads, is learnt to have suspected that incumbent office-bearers who were appointed when Dinesh Gundu Rao was KPCC president, are not loyal to him. "Gundu Rao, a protege of Siddaramaiah, appointed all office bearers as per Siddaramaiah's suggestions," a leader from the Shivakumar camp said.
“We want to remove district and block-level office bearers as they failed to work effectively in strengthening the party and helping people during the pandemic,” Shivakumar said.
According to Shivakumar, since the party has to face zilla panchayat, taluk panchayat and urban local bodies polls soon, revamping ground-level units is very important to energise the organisation.
The Vokkaliga leader also said he discussed party and state issues with Rahul on Tuesday but refused to disclose more. He said he is keen on adopting a new formula for appointing local-level functionaries.
However, appointment of new office bearers is not easy for Shivakumar without the approval of Siddaramaiah, as the latter is also ready with his own list of people in case the party approves the removal of existing office-bearers.
Appointing their own candidates to local units is also key to field their own loyalists for coming local body elections, said a Congress leader.
Fielding their own supporters for Assembly elections and ensuring their victory would mean it will be easy to mobilise support from elected leaders for the CM's post, the leader said, adding that it is ultimately a numbers game. A person having the backing of the highest number of MLAs matters a lot, said the leader.
Siddaramaiah already started a whirlwind tour of the state distributing ration kits to the poor. These kits are organised by the former chief minister’s loyalist leaders in an attempt to reach out to the common man.