Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, armed with overwhelming support in the Congress Legislature Party, has gone on the offensive against his arch political rival — Union minister and JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy — and three other BJP leaders.
Siddaramaiah’s aggression is backed by support from both the cabinet and the legislature party and comes in the wake of the central leadership of the Congress standing firmly behind him.
Siddaramaiah will be in the national capital to once again brief Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, organising secretary KC Venugopal, and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala on the entire controversy regarding the allocation of 14 sites to his wife in exchange for the unauthorised occupation of 3.6 acres of land by Mysuru’s Urban Development Authority (MUDA). He had earlier made his stance clear with the central leadership when the political issue began to snowball into a major controversy.
Siddaramaiah has maintained that he has “no role whatsoever” in the gifting of the 3.16 acres of land by his brother-in-law Mallikarjun Swamy to his wife, BM Parvathi.
The chief minister did not attend three cabinet meetings held on August 1, August 8, and August 22 in which discussions revolved around the MUDA case, in which his name has surfaced. These meetings were chaired by deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar.
In those meetings, the Cabinet “unanimously expressed solidarity” against the “illegal decision of the Governor to prosecute” Siddaramaiah. It was stated that apart from granting sanction, which was “totally against the Constitution and completely illegal”, the Governor’s action also violated the Standard Operating Procedure issued by the Government of India for processing cases under Section 17(A) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The meeting on Thursday confirmed the resolution passed by the state cabinet on August 1 and 8, advising the Governor to withdraw the show-cause notice issued to Siddaramaiah based on a private complaint.
Shivakumar, who is known to be a contender for Siddaramaiah’s chair, has gone to the extent of stating: “My chief minister will not resign. He will remain the CM for the next five years.”
Given the level of support and the consistent attacks from Kumaraswamy and the BJP, the cabinet decided to advise Governor Thawarchand Gehlot under Article 163 to sanction the prosecution of Kumaraswamy and BJP leader Janardhan Reddy, against whom chargesheets have already been filed. The cabinet also named former BJP ministers Shashikala Jolle and Murugesh Nirani, against whom investigations into corruption charges have been completed by probe agencies.
The Congress government has condemned the Governor for “acting as a representative of the Central government, which is unnecessarily trying to destabilise the state government by using the Governor,” said Siddaramaiah earlier. He also stated that when there were serious cases against Kumaraswamy, Jolle, Reddy, and Nirani, the Governor did not grant prosecution, but in Siddaramaiah’s case, sanction was granted even before a preliminary investigation.
“In the case of Siddaramaiah, the Governor received complaints from private individuals and issued a showcause notice. But in these cases, chargesheets have been filed, the Governor has sought clarifications, and these clarifications have also been provided by the Lokayukta SIT in Kumaraswamy’s case. So, we have advised the Governor under Article 163 to provide sanction for prosecution,” said Karnataka Law Minister HK Patil after the cabinet meeting.
Political analyst Sandeep Shastri points out that compared to 2023, Siddaramaiah seems to look weaker as a chief minister after the MUDA case.
“If you remove the veneer of formality, I don’t see him emerging stronger. The backing that the Congress party is giving him is being done with a sense of inheritability,” said Shastri, adding that the Congress high command at this point does not have any other choice but to back him.
The situation that Siddaramaiah faces within his party reminds the analyst of how former BJP chief minister BS Yediyurappa was treated when he was faced with corruption charges during his term between 2008 and 2011.
“The BJP high command backed him, but when the issue got hotter and began to damage the image of the party, they dropped him like a hot potato. Siddaramaiah may meet the same fate if the case, as it unfolds, puts him on the back foot,” said Shastri.
He added that the MUDA controversy has certainly dented Siddaramaiah’s image and there are enough factions within the party to take advantage of the situation and vie for the CM chair. In the formal sense, the Congress has made it look like everybody is backing him, but one needs to see how it pans out.
“In the previous term, Siddaramaiah was much more than a first among equals, but in this term, he is much less a first among equals,” Shastri added.
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