FOR record, Mr. Siddaramaiah has resigned as Chief Minister of Karnataka. For record, his deputy, Mr. D K Shivakumar would take his place for the remaining two years of the five-year term. For record, thus, the power tussle within the Congress party is over. So, for record, the State Government would now find time to devote to people’s issues. Despite this, nobody would ever be sure that the internal trouble in the party would really end. This is how the Congress party often functions -- in a fractious manner. The tussle for power between Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivakumar was really intense -- but none of them was responsible for the tug of war.

 

That onus lay with the Congress high command led technically by no one single person, but a family clutch of the Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka Gandhi that has often found pleasure in keeping its own close associates fighting all the time. The internal fissures in the Congress party, thus, have been directly proportional to the failure of the Gandhi family to arrive at a firm decision in right time. The Gandhi triumvirate made promises to both, Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivakumar, but did not keep any. It talked of a two-and-a-half-year stint of chief ministership for both, but backtracked on it.

 

That led to an intense tussle for power between the two of them -- which ultimately resulted into an indifferent governance in Karnataka (for which the people suffered). A few months ago, once the middle-point of the five-year term came, Mr. Shivakumar surged up to ask for fulfillment of the promises the Gandhis made to him. That time, he was silenced for a while, but the issue came up once again and led to the ouster of Mr. Siddaramaiah. Mr. Shivakumar, who was actually the architect of electoral victory three years ago, will now have barely two years to ramp up the Congress party’s effort to retain power. By no standard will this task be easy. For, the Congress Government has lost much of its ability to direct public opinion in its favour in the past three years. Of course, this has been the style of the Congress party. In Chhattisgarh, too, it followed a similar track, and ended up in disaster. Earlier in Rajasthan, too, it made a similar mistake, and eventually lost power to the Bharatiya Janata Party. In Keralam, it took nearly 12 days before finally sorting out the tussle between two contenders. Thus, the story that unfolded in Karnataka was quite in tune with the internal culture of the Congress party.

 

Of course, Mr. D K Shivakumar is a smart politician who knows how to operate different levers deftly and make those work for him and the party. Yet, in the given situation in Karnataka, Mr. Shivakumar may find it difficult to get the entire party to work cogently so that it gets ready for the electoral battle two years later. For, even as he tries his best, Mr. Shivakumar will have to navigate through the intricate web of politics Mr. Siddaramaiah has woven and will operate deftly (to keep his own importance intact). With a compromised capability, thus, Mr. Shivakumar will have the onerous task of leading the party into elections -- against a much stronger and better-organised BJP. There is no doubt, however, that Mr. D K Shivakumar is a devoted Congressman whose loyalties and capabilities are beyond question. Not only is a good political organiser but also an acclaimed administrator. In him, the Congress party will have a genuine leader who can deliver the goods. If the party rallies behind him at all levels, if the high command lends him the fullest support, if Mr. Siddaramaiah stands by his former deputy, then the Congress party can be expected to do well at the hustings. But each ‘if’ has a tough rider -- which Mr. Shivakumar should be able to handle effectively. Meanwhile, the BJP in Karnataka has worked around the mistakes it did previously to lose the electoral battle. If those moves pay off well, then the BJP will expect a good showing -- close on the heels of its own performance in West Bengal in particular. It is clear, however, that the electoral battle has just begun.