As the parleys around the formation of a new Karnataka government under DK Shivakumar intensify, one man has fully self-effaced.
This man is Siddaramaiah, the indomitable socialist stalwart who changed the electoral map of Karnataka by creating a social coalition of the marginalised and the minorities, something like Nitish Kumar did in Bihar.
Related news: Day after resigning as Karnataka CM, Siddaramaiah meets Rahul Gandhi in Delhi
Siddaramaiah was offered a Rajya Sabha berth in the upcoming biennial elections to the Upper House but he has refused.
He declared yesterday and reiterated today the decision to stay put in Karnataka and finish his term of five years for which people have elected him.
“I will serve my state and my constituency and will fight communal forces till my last breath,” Siddaramaiah said today, stressing his decision not to be dislocated from a state he spent years nurturing.
Sources close to Siddaramaiah say he can never be written off, notwithstanding the latest developments.
Siddaramaiah will continue to command a considerable clout even without the occupation of CMO given his affinity to the social groups he has endeared—OBCs (he is himself an OBC Kuruba), Dalits and Muslims.
Sources say unlike Nitish Kumar in Bihar who was edged out of the state and into the Rajya Sabha Siddaramaiah is no pushover.
Siddaramaiah will make his decisions, said a leader who has seen his rise from Janata Dal days to the Congress which be joined in 2006, after it became clear that JDS stalwart HD Deve Gowda was grooming son Kumaraswamy and there was no place at the top for Siddaramaiah.
So, the Kuruba veteran came to Congress which benefitted from his electoral reach.
Even today the Congress would need Siddaramaiah on its side as it makes a transition.
Although Siddaramaiah has made the right noises about transition and about facilitating DK Shivakumar as new CM, his presence in Karnataka as an MLA is likely to create a peculiar situation the party is not sure how to handle.
That’s one reason why Rahul Gandhi wanted Siddaramaiah at the Centre, a proposition the latter has firmly declined indicating clearly that his stint in the Karnataka CMO may be over but his stint in Karnataka politics is far from over.
