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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Fractured Crown

Between Siddaramaiah’s grip on power and Shivakumar’s restless ambition, the Karnataka Congress is trapped in a succession spiral. Karnataka Karnataka today has two chief ministers - one by office, the other by expectation. The power tussle between Siddaramaiah and his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, has slipped so completely into the open that the Congress’s ritual denials sound like political farce. A whispered ‘understanding’ after the 2023 victory that each would get the CM’s post after...

Fractured Crown

Between Siddaramaiah’s grip on power and Shivakumar’s restless ambition, the Karnataka Congress is trapped in a succession spiral. Karnataka Karnataka today has two chief ministers - one by office, the other by expectation. The power tussle between Siddaramaiah and his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, has slipped so completely into the open that the Congress’s ritual denials sound like political farce. A whispered ‘understanding’ after the 2023 victory that each would get the CM’s post after two-and-a-half years has hardened into a public confrontation between a chief minister determined to finish five years and a deputy increasingly unwilling to wait. The recent breakfast meeting between the two men at Siddaramaiah’s residence was presented as a truce where the ‘high command’ was invoked as the final arbiter. “There are no differences between us,” Siddaramaiah insisted, twice for emphasis. Few were convinced and soon, Shivakumar was again hinting darkly at change. For weeks, Shivakumar’s loyalists have been holding meetings, mobilising legislators and making pilgrimages to Delhi to get the Congress high command to honour its promise. They insist that the Congress leadership agreed to a rotational chief ministership in 2023 and that November 2025 was always meant to mark Shivakumar’s ascent. The high command, for its part, has perfected the art of strategic vagueness by neither confirming nor denying the pact. This suggests that the Congress does not merely hesitate to act against Siddaramaiah, but increasingly lacks the capacity to do so. From the outset of his second innings, Siddaramaiah has given no signal of easing aside. As he approaches January 2026, poised to overtake D. Devaraj Urs as Karnataka’s longest-serving chief minister, the symbolism is unmistakable. The mantle of social justice politics that Urs once embodied now firmly sits on Siddaramaiah’s shoulders. And it is this social coalition that shields him. His fortress is AHINDA - minorities, backward classes and Dalits. Leaked figures from the unreleased caste census suggest that these groups together approach or exceed two-thirds of the state’s population. Lingayats and Vokkaligas, once electorally dominant, are rendered numerical minorities in this arithmetic. Siddaramaiah governs not merely as a Congress leader, but as the putative custodian of Karnataka’s demographic majority. That claim is reinforced through policy. Minority scholarships have been revived, contractor quotas restored, residential schools expanded. More than Rs. 42,000 crore has been earmarked for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Kurubas, his own community, have been pitched for Scheduled Tribe status, with careful assurances that their elevation will not disadvantage others. DK Shivakumar brings organisational muscle, financial clout and control over the Vokkaliga heartland. In electoral campaigns, these are formidable assets. But in a confrontation with a leader who embodies a 60–70 percent social coalition, they are blunt instruments. The Congress high command understands this equation, even if it publicly pretends otherwise. It also remembers, uneasily, what Siddaramaiah did the last time his authority was constrained. In 2020, when the Congress–JD(S) coalition collapsed after 16 MLAs defected to Mumbai,13 of them hailed from Siddaramaiah’s camp. At the time, he held the post of coordination committee chairman. Instead, he emerged as the principal beneficiary of collapse, returning as Leader of the Opposition with a tighter grip on the party. If the Congress high command could not punish him then, it is doubtful it can coerce him now. Shivakumar’s predicament is thus more tragic than tactical. He is not battling a rival alone, but an entire political structure built to outlast him. The promised coronation looks increasingly like a mirage drifting just ahead of a man condemned to keep walking. For the Congress, the cost of this paralysis is already visible. A government elected on guarantees and governance is consumed by succession. The party’s authority is dissolving while its factions harden. The Congress returned to power in Karnataka after years in the wilderness, only to re-enact the same leadership dysfunction that has crippled it elsewhere. Regardless of whether Siddaramaiah survives this storm, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Congress cannot survive the slow corrosion of its command in one of the few states it holds today.

Agrarian Crisis Issue Again

Agrarian Crisis Issue Again

Yet, another story of the government’s apathy towards the agrarian community. Burdened by the debt and unable to come out of this precarious situation, many farmers in the state turn to suicide. They took this extreme step saying that no option was left before them.


With a view to reduce the number of farmer suicides in Maharashtra, the state government finally took the decision to implement Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme of Rs 150 per beneficiary per month instead of foodgrains, from January, 2023 to all APL (Above Poverty Line) saffron cardholder farmers of drought prone 14 districts which includes all the districts of Aurangabad and Amravati divisions and Wardha in Nagpur division.


After the brainstorming sessions, the GR about this was issued on February 28, 2023. As per the increase in minimum support price every year, according to the provisions of the Cash Transfer of Food Subsidy Rules, 2015 notified by the Central Government, the revised incremental cash amount was to be directly transferred to the beneficiary every year. According to the provisions mentioned in to the G.R., a total amount of Rs 179.87 crore has been made available to the concerned districts for the period of January 2023 to March 2023 and amount of 168.75 crore has been made available for the period of April 2023 to June 2023.


Accordingly, the process of depositing the cash amount in the beneficiary’s bank account started. Though there were some glitches it started smoothly. But very shortly the government started receiving complaints about the non-payment. The farmers became furious and took the issue to the streets. However, protests and agitation fell on deaf ears of the government.


Significantly, the bureaucracy was prompt to show a number of excuses for non-payment. According to them spelling errors in Aadhaar details, incorrect seeding of citizen’s Aadhaar and bank account, pending KYC and frozen or blocked bank accounts, network failures, biometric authentication failures, point-of-sale (PoS) device malfunctioning are some of the prominent reasons for payment failures in DBT. Sad part of the story is the government accepted the explanation tendered by officials.


Amid an erratic weather pattern, cases of farmer suicides in Maharashtra continued even this year. The state alone reported around 557 such incidents in the last six months. The government has so far provided assistance to 53 families, while 284 cases are pending for investigation. Most of the farmer suicides have been reported from the Amravati division of Maharashtra. Suicides have been reported in five districts - Akola, Buldhana, Washim, Yavatmal, Amravati from January to June this year. Amravati district tops the chart with 170 suicide cases.


The DBT scheme failed and the government decision to scrap the scheme has only added to their woos.

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