HDK vs DKS: Battle of Vokkaliga heavyweights

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: The recent spat between JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar carries within it undertones of a tussle for Vokkaliga political leadership.

The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president emerged as the community mass leader in May’s Assembly election, winning 30 of the 61 seats in the Vokkaliga heartland of Old Mysuru, which includes districts such as Ramanagara, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Hassan and Mandya.

In fact, in Mandya district, the damage was greatest as JD(S) went from winning all seven seats in 2018 to just one while Congress and its ally walked away with six.

This development wasn’t lost on Kumaraswamy, who has chosen to direct his tirade at the Deputy CM on multiple occasions. It has been made worse by Shivakumar and CM Siddaramaiah reportedly trying to engineer the defection of two-thirds of JD(S) MLAs (at least 13).

This would enable the rebels to claim the party symbol and avoid by-polls. Congress has a simple majority in the Assembly with 136 seats and has no need of additional MLAs.

Kumaraswamy has responded by setting up a core committee to keep its MLAs from leaving. The body is headed by Chamundeshwari MLA GT Devegowda. The JD(S) bigwig has also decided that one of the ways to keep Shivakumar’s influence in check is to question his credibility.

On Sunday, Kumaraswamy claimed that Shivakumar would end up in Tihar Jail in New Delhi, referring to the disproportionate assets cases against him for which he was jailed. He added that the State government would also fall next year.

The Karnataka Congress chief is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)  insists that the cases are politically motivated.

Interestingly, Shivakumar’s imprisonment had led to protests and a boost in his popularity.

Allegations of coalition sabotage

Kumaraswamy went even further and alleged that Shivakumar was one of the reasons why their coalition government had fallen back in July 2019. He was referring to the infamous Operation Kamala back in 2019, which saw 17 MLAs, a mix of Congress and JD(S) lawmakers joining the BJP to topple the Kumaraswamyled coalition.

On Monday, the former CM claimed that he “spoiled” the minds of Vokkaligas by lying to them.

“People were of the opinion that this poor guy (Shivakumar) did his best to protect the government. Why does Kumaranna hate him? This is how he started to spoil the mind of our people. That State government fell because of that man,” Kumaraswamy had said.

This brought on rebuttals from Shivakumar, his brother and Bengaluru Rural MP DK Suresh, Arsikere MLA KM Shivalinge Gowda and Agriculture Minister N Chaluvarayasamy.

Suresh claimed that Kumaraswamy was conniving with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and threatening Shivakumar with cases. Whether Kumaraswamy is able to wrest the community’s support from Shivakumar remains to be seen.

Voters are likely to choose national parties over regional ones in Lok Sabha elections but JD(S) does have a tie-up with the BJP to remedy that.