Karnataka Power Struggle Intensifies Between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar

Bengaluru:After a brief lull, the power sharing between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar has intensified again with the war of words freely being aired by supporters of both the groups after Shivakumar's Delhi visit last week. Unlike previous times, where Shivakumar's supporters restrained themselves from mounting a direct attack and just expressed their desire to see him as the Chief Minister, this time, Siddaramaiah's son Dr Yathindra has come under their attack. It is not a secret that Dr Yathindra, along with Urban Development Minister Byrathi Suresh are running a shadow administration in the State. This has irked many Congress legislators and even some of the ministers, as they are left powerless even in their own constituencies. That was the reason behind both Shivakumar and his brother D K Suresh referred to Dr Yathindra as `our high command', whenever he went on to say that his father would complete the full term. The developments are indicating that some kind of change in the state power centre is in the air, sooner or later. But, there are few problems with the timeline. The state budget is scheduled to be presented on March 6 and after the budget session, the general elections to five important states, including neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Kerala, along with West Bengal are on cards. At this juncture, will the party high command change an OBC leader, which may send a wrong signal to the states going to polls. But, the D K Shivakumar supporters are charged again. Earlier, many of D K Shivakumar's supporters were issued with show cause notices for issuing any statement regarding leadership changes. However, the same was not the case with the supporters of Siddaramaiah, where Dr Yathindra, even ministers like Zameer Ahmed Khan, Sathish Jarkiholi and Dr H C Mahadevappa issued statements saying that the government will not survive if Siddaramaiah was changed. After Shivakumar's Delhi visit last week, where he held meetings with AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, General Secretary K C Venugopal, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and lastly with Rahul Gandhi also, who eluded Shivakumar for long. The first question Shivakumar supporters asked was why Siddaramaiah supporters were left alone, while Shivakumar supporters were issued with show cause notice for the same offense. Mandya MLA Ganiga Ravi, while expressing his confidence in D K Shivakumar becoming the Chief Minister soon said came down heavily on Dr Yathindra. ``He is the party high command for us. The high command can issue us notice, but we can not issue him notice. This will not happen for long,'' he said. Also Watch: When other MLAs like Ramanagar MLA Iqbal Hussain, Magadi Balakrishna and others started talking in the same tone and started directing their comments towards AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, Dr Yathindra toned down a bit and said: ``There is nothing much to read between the lines. After Shivarathri, everything will be fine for everyone, including the Deputy Chief Minister.'' Meanwhile, MLC B K Hariprasad, an old friend of Shivakumar who had switched to Siddaramaiah camp recently wondered who should be solving the confusion here. ``The party high command did not create any confusion. Then, how will they solve it?'' he asked. ``D K Shivakumar is like a railway engine. He makes a lot of noise when he arrives. He pulls everyone with him. I feel the party high command will decide everything,'' he added.