Karnataka Congress state chief and six-time MLA D K Shivakumar (DKS) has waited long enough to make a serious bid for the chief minister’s post. His best chance is now if the Congress comes to power in these elections, though the other contender from the party, the veteran leader and former CM Siddaramiah will be no easy rival. But that’s for later, as of now, all DKS is focused on now is to somehow take the Congress over the line.
We meet him at his Bengaluru house in Sadashivanagar, rather modest for a man who is called the ‘moneybag’ of the party and who has declared assets worth Rs 1,214 crore in the affidavit while filing his nomination papers (up from Rs 840 crore in 2018). He looks battle weary, as he has already done a round of campaigning and meetings in the morning, but there is a manic energy about him. “I’ve been getting only about three to four hours of sleep every day,” he says.
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Shivakumar’s determination to defeat the BJP in these elections is both political and personal. He still bristles at the humiliation of spending two months in Tihar jail in Delhi in 2019 on charges of money laundering and tax evasion. He says he was meted out the harshest treatment against the rule book as his arrest was political vendetta, put in a small, dirty cell with a bright light glaring at him and a camera filming him day and night. Tihar turned him into a vegetarian and more religious. But why did it come to that, why couldn’t his lawyers defend him? “More strong, more enemies, less strong, less enemies, no strong, no enemies,” is his coinage.
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He is certain people will throw out the Bommai government as it has been the most ineffective regime in Karnataka. He says that there were a lot of scams even during the Covid period, which the people have not forgotten; the farmers were particularly angry as their income was badly hit. When he was power minister, he had given free power if the consumption was within 200 units, which this government has withdrawn. Other welfare schemes like free ration of 10 kilos of rice to every family has also been curtailed. According to him, the BJP will also lose in the coastal belt, which has been its stronghold. “They said it will become an industrial hub, but the people got nothing,” he says.
The BJP apart, Shivakumar has enough rivals within his own party. Former chief minister Siddaramaiah is a tall leader with a huge voter base, whom many party workers consider to be the legitimate chief minister candidate if Congress wins. “DKS has been saying he is not going to take it lying down anymore. He will go all out for the top post. But Siddaramiah has more stature among party workers. Also, if it is a close verdict, Siddaramiah will be a more acceptable chief minister face to the other political parties. DKS has made too many enemies in the opposition camp,” says a three-time Congress MLA who didn’t want to be named.
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Shivakumar says the chief minister will be decided by the newly-elected MLAs, and the ‘high command’, that is the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, with whom he has strong ties. “Loyalty pays royalty,” he hurtles. For good measure, he says he has cordial relations with Siddaramiah too, meets him every 2-3 days for party matters. “We have divided the state between us. He will go to north Karnataka to campaign and I will go to the south. Then we will reverse the regions. We are constantly in touch about the party strategy,” he says.
As the polling date nears, DKS warns against voter list manipulation by the BJP. He says thousands of voter names have been missing in many constituencies, most of them minorities. There is also duplication of voter names. “The booth-level voter management will be very important in these elections,” he says. But he dismisses Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaigning in the last days as anything significant, as also other leaders like Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath. “It’s a local election. We don’t need any north Indian faces to run Karnataka,” he says. It will be clear in about two weeks if he is right.
