Will Cong resolve feud between KPCC Prez and campaign chief?

By Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: The simmering discord within the Congress party has again come to the fore with KPCC President D.K .Shivakumar dropping a bombshell on Tuesday over a midnight meeting between Higher Education Minister Dr.C.N. Ashwath Narayana and KPCC Campaign Committee M.B. Patil on the PSI recruitment scam.

This expose by the KPCC chief has revealed the strained relationship between Shivakumar and Patil. It started when Siddaramaiah was CM and the Congress took up the campaign for separate Lingayat tag for Lingayats. Though Patil did try to dissuade the Congress from going ahead with the campaign, he did not succeed. Shivakumar on the other hand, supported Siddaramaiah in trying to get religion tag for Veerashaivas. However the Congress lost the Assembly polls.

Since then, Shivakumar and Patil have been crossing swords on various issues. After the 2018 results, Shivakumar had admitted that the party committed a big mistake of dividing the Lingayat community and it would never do this in future.

Their animosity continued even after the Congress-JD(S) government came to power in 2018. Patil had held the Water Resources portfolio in the Siddaramaiah Government but it was given to Shivakumar instead. The Babaleshwar MLA had to contend with the Home portfolio. The two Congress titans clashed once again when Patil spoke about the phone tapping episode during the tenure of the Kumaraswamy government which was denied by Shivakumar. In fact, Patil had lobbied with the high command for the post of KPCC chief which however chose Shivakumar. Besides, Shivakumar know Patil is eyeing the CM’s post as the Congress has never made a Lingayat CM after M.Veerendra Patil. With both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar vying for the CM gaddi, Patil seems upset over the majority community not getting a chance for three decades. He did not actively take part in the Mekedatu march as he reportedly felt it was an ‘image makeover’ event for Shivakumar.