Karnataka crisis: Congress in damage-control mode as DK Shivakumar to meet rebel MLAs

BENGALURU: While AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad is in Bengaluru to take stock of the situation after the resignation of rebel MLAs, party troubleshooter DK Shivakumar will on Wednesday visit Maharashtra, where the dissident legislators are camping.

His brief: Win them over and bring them home. This could be a last-ditch effort by Shivakumar and a few JDS leaders to convince them to return.

Sources said that Shivakumar was given this assignment when he made a visit to New Delhi on Monday after he was reportedly summoned by the Congress high command to discuss the political crisis in Karnataka.

The low-key visit was reportedly known only to a few leaders in the JDS leadership and has raised a slender hope that the collapsing government can be resurrected.

Sources told TNIE, on condition of anonymity, that Shivakumar was asked whether he could salvage the government if he was appointed chief minister, replacing incumbent CM H D Kumaraswamy.

“Shivakumar is determined to save the coalition from falling apart and has been keen on becoming chief minister for a long time. He reportedly told a top JDS leader that some MLAs may return to the fold if he becomes CM. The former told him that he was okay with his suggestion, provided he could deliver,” said the source.

“This could also be Vokkaliga politics at work to counter former chief minister Siddaramaiah’s game plan to become CM for the second time, but how far it will be successful is the question, because a majority of rebel lawmakers are from North Karnataka, which is a Lingayat stronghold and BJP fortress,” he added.

What transpired between Shivakumar and the Congress high command is not confirmed, but sources said that he has been asked to take charge and quell the rebellion.

“Congress and JDS are likely to put across the formula of Shivakumar as CM to the 13 MLAs who resigned, with the hope that at least five or six of them come back,” the source added.

In August 2017, Shivakumar had hosted 42 Gujarat Congress lawmakers at Eagleton The Golf Resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru, to prevent them from shifting loyalties to the BJP, ahead of the Rajya Sabha poll.

The central leadership of the Congress, which is closely monitoring the crisis, has also sent a message to state leaders to follow the constitutional path in dealing with the MLAs’ resignation and seek “legal remedy” to take it to a logical conclusion.

“Congress leaders are willing to come out of the coalition and sit in the opposition. A lot depends upon the Speaker’s decision. The last resort will be to seek legal action against the rebel MLAs,” said an insider source.

Veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has been sent to Bengaluru on behalf of the party high command to convince senior Congress and JDS leaders, especially Siddaramaiah, to appoint Shivakumar as chief minister to mitigate the political crisis, it is said.