"She Sacrificed Power": DK Shivakumar's Sonia Gandhi Note In Karnataka Row

The Siddaramaiah-DK Shivakumar tug-of-war over the Karnataka Chief Minister's post – a headache the Congress could do without after another bruising year of electoral defeats – flared up again Friday evening, with DKS' unsubtle reference to Sonia Gandhi 'sacrificing power'.

At a government event in Bengaluru DKS spoke about the former Congress boss having given up the chance to become Prime Minister in 2004 after the party-led United Progressive Alliance won the Lok Sabha election. Instead she elevated Manmohan Singh, an economist par excellence who served as the Reserve Bank Governor and then Finance Minister, DKS said.

"Sonia Gandhi was the Congress President for 20 years. She also sacrificed power… Abdul Kalam (then the President of India) called her to become the next Prime Minister but she refused and, instead, suggested Manmohan Singh as someone who could develop the country," he said.

DKS also threw in a (far) more politically correct remark into his speech, calling on the people of the state to "always remain with this Congress government led by Siddaramaiah".

And he called on the people to "bless us once again (in the 2028 election)". The party's southern strongman, credited with orchestrating the 2023 win, has made it a point to alternate jabs in the chief ministerial battle with exhortations to the cadre and leaders to focus on the next poll.

But the Sonia Gandhi reference was unmissable.

Congress lawmakers backing DKS to replace Siddaramaiah as Chief Minister of Karnataka have demanded the latter honour a 'deal' struck after the 2023 Assembly election, a 'deal' made because both men wanted the top job and which said each would have a 2.5-year reign.

That halfway mark came and went last week with no sign of Siddaramaiah standing down or the party enforcing any 'deal'. And, over the past week, Shivakumar and his supporters have reminded the Chief Minister and his camp, and the Congress leadership, to give up power.

Those reminders include another not-so-cryptic jab by DKS – about 'word power being world power… which means that for us to keep our promise is one of the biggest powers in the world'.

Thus far Siddaramaiah has not yielded to pressure, which includes a group of DKS' supporters turning up in Delhi to petition party boss Mallikarjun Kharge directly. He has, though, admitted to "confusion" in the ranks and called on the party's senior leadership to "put a full stop" to it.

But a direct response to DKS' 'word power' jab – a post on X this morning declared "'word' is not 'power' unless it betters the world for the people…" – suggests the tension may be getting to him.

The Congress, meanwhile, has soft-peddled so far, refusing to comment either way. In fact, till Kharge's "Sonia, Rahul (Gandhi) and I will fix it" comment on Wednesday, the party had not openly acknowledged a leadership problem in Karnataka. Strongman Randeep Surjewala, who brokered peace in 2023 and again in June this year, blamed the BJP for a "malicious campaign".

This morning sources told NDTV Kharge had spoken to Rahul Gandhi and warned him the Siddaramaiah-DKS spat needs to be settled, once and for all, by the time the Karnataka Assembly's winter session begins on December 8. Kharge, sources said, was aware of the battering a divided party could take in the House, particularly with the BJP on alert.

A senior Karnataka BJP leader confirmed this morning the plan to push a no-confidence vote against the Congress' government. Sunil Kumar told reporters, "Siddaramaiah is restricted to Mysuru and the Deputy Chief Minister (DKS) to Delhi. In this situation I spoke to R Ashok (the Leader of the Opposition) and to other leaders and said we should bring a no confidence motion."