Karnataka: 4-cornered power play at CLP meet as Lingayat, SC MLAs seek CM post

The Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting in Bengaluru on Sunday evening was anticipated to be centered around claims of former chief minister Siddaramaiah and the party’s Karnataka unit chief DK Shivakumar over the state’s top elected post. But it turned out to be a four-cornered power play with Lingayat and Scheduled Caste (SC) members seeking chief ministership for someone from their communities.

The Congress has more Lingayat lawmakers. The strike rate among candidates from this influential community, which has traditionally voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was far higher than that among its non-Lingayat ones.

The Congress made inroads into the BJP’s traditional stronghold of the Bombay Karnataka sub-region and maintained its grip over the Hyderabad region, an indication that the votes within the Lingayat community may have splintered.

MB Patil, a Lingayat, is expected to be a deputy chief minister. The options for the chief minister’s post remain open with Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar, and G Parameshwara as the contenders.

A briefly worded resolution was passed at the CLP on Sunday authorising All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge to pick the next chief minister.

Supporters of Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar shouted slogans outside the CLP venue backing them.

The CLP leader will stake claim to the chief minister’s post. People aware of the matter said there was no discussion about appointing a deputy chief minister at the CLP meeting. The option is available to the Congress leadership to balance the caste equations.

A leader present at the meeting said some SC and Scheduled Tribe (ST) lawmakers argued the chief minister should be from the SC community. “[They argued] a large number of MLAs, about 35, are SC and ST. One of the leaders even suggested that looking at the national picture, Congress should try to revive its earlier SC, OBC [other backward class], and minority vote bank.”

As the BJP returned to power at the Centre with a bigger majority of 303 seats in 2019 compared to 282 in 2014, 10 of its additional 21 lawmakers were elected from the SC and ST reserved seats.

Out of the 131 reserved seats in the Lok Sabha, 77 are with the BJP. The Congress has just nine members of Parliament from the reserved seats.

Some of the Lingayat leaders at the CLP meeting said the party should recognise the role of their community in Congress’s victory in Karnataka. The Congress has 37 Lingayat lawmakers, up from just 13 last time.

“The Lingayat leaders asked for the chief minister to be a Lingayat as it would help further consolidation of Lingayat votes. They underlined the party has 37 Lingayat MLAs,” said a second leader, who did not want to be named.

Supporters of Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar came in numbers to the venue of the CLP meeting but no decision was taken over the chief ministership in Bengaluru.

The three observers appointed for the meeting—former Maharashtra chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Jitendra Singh, and Deepak Babaria—along with other senior party leaders met the newly-elected lawmakers in Bengaluru for over four hours.

“Initially, the meeting was scheduled for two hours. But the demand for the chief ministerial post from four quarters made us sit for more than three hours,” said the second leader, requesting anonymity.

The observers will convey the sense of the lawmakers to Kharge, said an aide to the Congress chief. “The Congress president will talk to both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar before announcing the name of the CLP leader. The Congress president will take his decision based on hard facts.”

In a tweet, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh late on Sunday said the observers will submit their report to the Congress president who will then decide. “This is inner-party democracy at its best. This is the Congress way of arriving at a consensus giving confidence to all that they have been heard.”