"Sonia, Rahul And I Will Fix It": M Kharge On Karnataka Congress Crisis

Congress boss Mallikarjun Kharge confirmed an open secret – the Karnataka leadership crisis – on Wednesday, and insisted the tug-of-war between the party's senior-most leaders in the state, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar, over the chief minister's post will be resolved, soon.

"Sonia (Gandhi), Rahul, and I will fix it…" the party President said this afternoon, shortly after party sources told NDTV a solution will be found by December 1, the start of the Winter session of Parliament. Sources said a Kharge-Rahul Gandhi meeting will be scheduled in the next 48 hours, after which Siddaramaiah and DKS will be summoned to Delhi, possibly on Friday.

That the Congress' central leadership has now admitted to the power struggle – in one of only three states it rules outright, and which votes in two years' time – seems to underscore the extent of factionalism within its Karnataka unit, with a group of MLAs firmly backing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and another insisting that DKS take over as 'reward' for his hard work.

Kharge's acknowledgment of that struggle followed unsubtle remarks by DKS, who was reportedly told in 2023, after orchestrating the Congress' surprise election win, that he would share the chief minister's job with Siddaramaiah; i.e., each would hold the post for 2.5 years.

That 2.5 year 'deadline' fell due last week and, on cue, a group of DKS-backing Karnataka Congress lawmakers landed in Delhi to remind Kharge and the Congress HQ of that 'deal'.

One of the MLAs who petitioned Kharge was the Ramanagara rep, Iqbal Hussain, who claimed to NDTV the Congress chief had listened sympathetically. And on Tuesday night Hussain declared "200 per cent… he (DK Shivakumar) will become Chief Minister soon."

As an aside, when the Siddaramaiah-DKS 'I want to be Chief Minister' spat reared in June, Hussain had gone to bat for the latter, and claimed over a 100 MLAs stood ready to back him.

On record DKS has downplayed any bid to replace Siddaramaiah. "I haven't asked for anything…" he said, but did not say there is no discussion over his promotion. The Deputy Chief Minister, who is also the Congress' state unit boss, only refused to "bring embarrassment to the Congress" and urged party leaders to focus on the 2028 state and 2029 federal elections.