The Congress' firefighting efforts in Karnataka this week managed to put a pin in the 'I want to be Chief Minister' spat between Siddaramaiah and his ambitious deputy, DK Shivakumar.
On Tuesday evening - after talks with party troubleshooter Randeep Surjewala - DKS, as Shivakumar is called, offered a brief statement to NDTV; 'I don't want any MLAs to bat for me', he said, in a message seen as calling on loyalists pressuring the Congress to sack Siddaramaiah to stand down.
DKS - credited with orchestrating the Congress' impressive win in the 2023 election - flagged the 2028 poll, the next big electoral test in the state, one of only two the party rules on its own.
"The focus should be on the 2028 election. There are no factions in the Congress... there is only one Congress under (party boss Mallikarjun) Kharge," DKS told NDTV. To underscore the party-fed line - that there are no rifts - Shivakumar, as directed, also served notice to an MLA who had claimed 100 of the Congress' 138 MLAs would back his play to have Siddaramaiah sacked and replace him.
The Congress has now insisted all is now well within the state leadership structure, and that the Siddaramaiah and DKS camps will now play nice and pull together ahead of the 2028 election.
READ | "Answer Is No": Congress Not Planning Karnataka Chief Minister Change
Will that happen? Time will tell.
But there is enough recent history to suggest the battle is far from settled.
Siddaramaiah vs DKS. When Did It Start?
The seeds were sown in 2018.
In May of that year the Congress and the Janata Dal Secular (then an ally) were celebrating the unlikely turn of events that led to the JDS' HD Kumaraswamy becoming Chief Minister.
But there was discontent brewing because DKS - widely credited for keeping the Congress-JDS alliance alive despite pressure from the BJP - felt he had been sidelined. He wanted recognition.
Back then he was expecting a ministerial berth (or command of Karnataka Congress) and his statement - 'Is it the same for those who win just one seat and those who win the state... I have not come to politics to take sanyas... let the party decide what I should do' - underlined his unhappiness.
There were reports then that DKS met Rahul Gandhi and was given certain assurances, including praise for his work in keeping the alliance together.
Siddaramaiah-DKS 2023 Spat
In the May 2023 election, the Congress claimed a big win over the Bharatiya Janata Party, both in terms of seats won and votes secured. The victory was partly fuelled by not publicly favouring either Siddaramaiah or DKS, a tactic that would have alienated communities supporting one or the other.
Instead, voters were presented with the trio of Kharge, Siddaramaiah, and DKS.
Amid the celebration, though, DKS began laying the groundwork to claim the chief minister's post, a reward he felt was now twice-due because, again, he had been instrumental in winning the election.
NDTV Explains | Who Holds Cards In Siddaramaiah-DK Shivakumar Showdown?
What followed was days of hectic bargaining between the Congress and its two seniormost leaders, each of whom had strong support from various voter groups. Siddaramaiah and DKS had maintained, for the most part, a united front during the campaign despite being at loggerheads for years.
The Congress eventually opted for Siddaramaiah, a party veteran with backing from marginalised communities and the minorities, and the choice of a majority of the MLAs.
DKS was given a choice of two offers as compensation, including one he finally accepted and that made him the Deputy Chief Minister with key portfolios and allowed him to remain the party's state unit boss.
DK Shivakumar (L) has made no secret of his ambition to become Chief Minister (File).
But it was the second offer that triggered the battle this week - it suggested Siddaramaiah and DKS would share power, i.e., each would be Chief Minister for half of the five-year-term.
That halfway mark comes around in September, and MLAs loyal to DKS had been flagging that 'deadline' as they revived attempts to make their man the Chief Minister.
READ | "Wait For December": Shivakumar Loyalist Hints At Change Of Guard, Again
As whispers of discontent gathered pace - DKS loyalists spoke darkly of 'corruption' in Siddaramaiah's administration - the Congress was forced to play peacemaker again.
First, it prompted the two to hold hands and grin broadly at a public event in Mysuru, at which the Chief Minister told reporters, "Our government will last for five years... like a rock." And then Surjewala was dispatched to Bengaluru to wrangle a truce, if not ensure a permanent peace.
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