Showdown between Sidda, Shivakumar loyalists brings Congress faultlines to fore

As Venugopal stepped out of the terminal, the Deputy CM’s supporters broke into chants, rooting for him. Hours later, when Siddaramaiah’s flight touched down, his loyalists counterpunched with counter-slogans: “Siddu, Siddu, full-term Siddu,” signalling that they want the CM to remain in office till 2028.

Even as the sloganeering settled, political ripples continued. Siddaramaiah privately met Venugopal, adding fresh layers to the capital’s already simmering whisper campaign.

The leadership question has been raging since November, when the current Congress government crossed the halfway mark, a moment at the centre of the alleged 2023 power-sharing pact between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar.

By evening, the tension travelled from airport to microphones. Siddaramaiah made it clear he had no intention of flying to Delhi unless formally summoned. When reminded that Shivakumar had already left for the Capital, he brushed it off with a sharp retort, saying the deputy CM could travel wherever he wished, but he himself would go “only if invited”. Any direction from the high command, he added, would come through Venugopal.

Shivakumar, while heading to Delhi earlier in the day, maintained he was attending a wedding and preparing for the party’s December 14 event and show of strength against the alleged vote theft at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi.

He said each district unit had been tasked with sending at least 300 workers. Asked about the slogan war and the CM’s meeting with Venugopal, he dismissed the controversy with a shrug, saying there was nothing inappropriate in party workers cheering their leaders or in Siddaramaiah meeting senior functionaries.

Despite recent attempts at unity, including the well-publicised breakfast meetings hosted at each other’s homes, the Wednesday spectacle has again exposed the cracks within the party.

For the Congress high command, the Mangaluru episode is a reminder that the leadership debate in Karnataka is growing louder, bolder and increasingly impossible to keep behind closed doors.