Congress burns midnight oil to settle on Siddaramaiah; keeps DKS happy

At around 1 AM on Thursday, D K Shivakumar as Karnataka Congress president wrote to Governor Tawarchand Gehlot intimating Siddaramaiah as the party’s Chief Ministerial choice and preference for the swearing-in ceremony on Saturday afternoon.

This capped the confrontation running into 72 hours for the top post between two leaders that saw numerous physical meetings, sulking leaders, intense lobbying, conference calls, telephone conversations, WhatsApp messages and several formulas to end the impasse.

In the end, all suspense ended with the party deciding to have Siddaramaiah at the helm and Shivakumar as his deputy, shattering the hopes of leaders like M B Patil who was hoping to become one of the Deputy Chief Ministers.

The countdown to the swearing-in on Saturday started as the central leadership took a firm stand to end the impasse with a plan finalised by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday evening and Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal chosen as the executioner of the plan.

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The leadership was clear that Siddaramaiah would be at the helm while Shivakumar would have to join him as the Deputy Chief Minister.

But The leadership did not want to belittle Shivakumar, as they decided he would be the lone deputy though it had toyed with the idea of having three Deputy Chief Ministers from Lingayat, Muslim and Dalit communities.

The leadership also decided that the ‘one man, one post’ rule will not be imposed on him and that he would remain as Karnataka Congress president till the Lok Sabha elections, a message to party men that the party still values his organisational skills. Besides, Shivakumar would be given plum portfolios as well as adequate seats for his supporters in the cabinet.

Siddaramaiah conveyed to the leadership that he has no issues in meeting Shivakumar’s demand except for the Chief Minister’s post.

Soon, Shivakumar, who first refused to fly to Delhi on Monday, climbed down from his belligerent stand of not accepting a Deputy Chief Minister post and insisting on a full term as Chief Minister. He will not say what happened but a call from Sonia is said to have melted the ice.

While the scales were tilted towards Siddaramaiah, the adamant stand by Shivakumar had almost derailed the negotiations.

The leadership was not keen on rotational Chief Ministers, as they felt it was not practical, while it was also not willing to antagonise Shivakumar, who has contributed “immensely to the party and its victory”.

One of the toughest parts was to convince Shivakumar though he had already indicated that he was not into blackmailing the leadership. Kharge first firmed up a plan in consultation with Venugopal and Congress General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge Surjewala and discussed it with Rahul.

Rahul then had a discussion with Sonia – earlier on Wednesday Kharge, Sonia and Rahul had a conference call – and relayed her views back to the Congress president. Soon Venugopal was tasked with conveying the decision to both leaders.

In between, Sonia had separate interactions with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar and emphasised the need for unity. She is learnt to have told Shivakumar how the party values him and he has to accept the post of Deputy Chief Minister and he would surely get the reward.

Surjewala soon got a visitor – Shivakumar – at his home. Soon after the meeting, he left for Kharge’s residence where Venugopal was already present.

As the leadership fine-tuned its strategy, Venugopal sent messages to both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah for separate meetings. Over dinner, Venugopal, who became the bridge between the High Command and the warring leaders, along with Surjewala first met Siddaramaiah followed by Shivakumar.

With a deal in hand on Thursday early morning, Venugopal briefed Kharge about the developments. Kharge on his part informed Sonia and Rahul about the development while the two Karnataka leaders were asked to come to Venugopal’s residence for a breakfast meeting.

It was also decided that Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar would return on the same special flight along with Surjewala. The casualties were two Siddaramaiah loyalists who had come to Delhi with him on Monday, as they had to make way for Shivakumar and Surjewala.

As South Indian delicacies were served, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar sat around a table along with Surjewala at Venugopal’s residence for the first time on Thursday after the Karnataka results were out five days ago. From there, all the leaders went to Kharge’s residence. The photographs from Venugopal’s and Kharge’s residences then told the story of camaraderie.