K’taka CM post: Why so much confusion?

There is nothing wrong in being aspirational as far as politics is concerned. This is all the more relevant when a party wins an overwhelming majority in the Assembly elections and is also blessed with not one or two but at least half a dozen leaders who could all be described as eminently qualified to become CM.

Karnataka has been witnessing a churning of sorts in the past few weeks over the CM post which surprisingly, is happening barely six months after the Congress party swept to power bagging 135 seats in the 224-member Assembly.

The beaten and bruised BJP has not even been able to choose an opposition leader since then and most citizens felt they could look forward to a phase of stable governance after the policy paralysis and lacklustre governance during BJP rule.

The contenders for the CM post which was earlier confined to just two top guns - Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar - have now suddenly spiraled to many.

Priyank Kharge, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s son for one, said a few days ago that he would accept the CM post in case the party high command asks him to take charge.

Soon came the remark from Belagavi strongman and Dalit leader Satish Jarkiholi that every community wanted their leader to become CM. He qualified this with a remark that he would back former Deputy CM Dr G Parameshwar for the top post if Siddaramaiah gave it up.

Seventy-six-year-old Siddaramaiah no doubt, is the best choice the Congress has now considering his administrative skills and his long years in politics in the Janata Dal and Congress but age is catching up with him.

Added to this is the strong challenge posed by state Congress chief DK Shivakumar during the days after the Congress victory which the party high command finally resolved with an ‘informal understanding’ that ‘DK’ would take over as CM after 2 and a half years.

What has led to speculation over the CM post at a time when the Congress government should have been chugging on smoothly, are statements by loyalists of both leaders with Siddu supporters absolutely sure he would continue for the full five years and those backing Shivakumar saying they were waiting for their leader to take over.

The CM tried to put a lid on the war of words saying he would continue for five years but that has elicited a flurry of reactions with the DK camp wondering if this would not go against the ‘agreement’ the top brass had struck in May.

All this no doubt has taken a bit of the sheen off the Congress government’s impressive performance after it launched the guarantee schemes for free power, food grains and travel.

There are political analysts who feel that if the high command had sent out a clear and unambiguous message on the CM post soon after the euphoric victory, it would have gone a long way in stopping tongues from wagging but for some strange reason, that has not happened.

A firm stance by both the central and state leadership on the CM issue seems to be the best way to keep the dissent from crossing bounds. And even if a word has been given to Shivakumar on the CM post, there are still two years to go to reach that deadline.

So why all this confusion and secret confabulations and more so at a time when the party claims it is confident of seizing a big chunk of Lok Sabha seats from the BJP in the general elections, due barely five months from now?