A huge turnout of Congress party workers, well-wishers and supporters at 'Siddaramothsava'—the 75th birthday celebrations of Siddaramaiah held at Davangere—on Wednesday gave a clear message that the former chief minister is still the most popular leader of the Congress party in Karnataka.
The birthday celebrations invariably turned into a show of strength by the Ahinda leader who is seeking a second stint as the chief minister post the 2023 Assembly elections much to the chagrin of KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar, also a serious contender for the post.
While the growing rift between the two tallest leaders of the state Congress is no longer a secret, the presence of Rahul Gandhi at the celebrations managed to bring the two leaders into a public embrace on the dais in a show of camaraderie. But the crowd response to Siddaramaiah all through the event and the subtle hints during the speeches of both leaders were a give away of the quiet power tussle between the veterans.
Rahul Gandhi openly expressed happiness over the two leaders hugging each other on the dais. He also expressed his admiration for Siddaramaiah, the person as well as the “way” he had run the government between 2013 and 2018, with a slew of popular welfare schemes. In the same spirit, he acknowledged Shivakumar’s “tremendous” work for the Congress party.
“The party is united in Karnataka to defeat the BJP and RSS,” said Gandhi.
Shivakumar chose to downplay Siddaramaiah’s credentials as an ‘Ahinda’ leader by urging partyworkers not to project Siddaramaiah as only a backward class leader. “He is a leader for all the communities. We shall work unitedly under the leadership of Siddaramaiah and go to elections under collective leadership. But only Siddaramaiah and I cannot bring the party to power in Karnataka unless the partyworkers reach out to people of all communities and throw out the BJP government. Past is history. The future is in your hands and you must bring the party to power,” said Shivakumar, adding that the sole intention of the partyworkers and leaders should be to bring the party to power.
“I want to see the Congess party occupy the third floor in the Vidhana Soudha. We must all resolve to uproot the corrupt BJP government. During Siddaramaiah’s tenure as CM, we were all the ministers and our Congress government has given a host of pro-people programmes. Siddaramaiah is one leader who came up with a scheme to alleviate hunger within an hour of assuming charge as the CM. It was under his leadership that I ensured seven hours of uninterrupted power as the energy minister,” recalled Shivakumar, adding that by winning Karnataka, the party should strengthen the hands of Sonia Gandhi and make Rahul Gandhui the Prime Minister of the country in 2024.
Siddaramaiah, who was beaming over the overwhelming response to the event and the cheering crowd of supporters who had turned up in lakhs, said that the so-called rift between him and Shivakumar was only a “media creation” and an “illusion” suffered by his political opponents.
“D.K. Shivakumar is the KPCC chief. Many times, our political opponents and the media mislead people saying there is a rift between me and Shivakumar. I and Shivakumar are together and the challenge before us is to uproot the corrupt and anti-people BJP government in the state and bring the Congress party to power under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi,” said Siddarmaiah.
Interestingly, Siddaramaiah, who had earlier announced that the 2023 polls would be his last elections, recalled 45 years of his political career and said that in politics, one could not survive without people's constant love, support and blessings. “I thank the people for their support. As long as I am strong physically and mentally, I will be in active politics and serve the people,” said Siddaramaiah.
AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal called on the partyworkers to work unitedly to bring back the Congress party to power in Karnataka. “In this dark era, India is looking for light and it will start from Karnataka as the party will win Karnataka in 2023 under Siddaramaiah’s leadership and with a dynamic PCC president like Shivakumar. We have a galaxy of senior leaders on the dais today, which no other party can claim to have,” said Venugopal who hailed Siddarmaiah as a “man of ideology, passion and leadership”.
“It was the Congress party that realised the leadership quality of Siddaramaiah. If good people are in a bad party there will be no future for them or the country. If good people come to a good party it is good for all, and Siddaramaiah is a case in point,” said Venugopal.
Earlier Rahul Gandhi said he never attended birthday celebrations but had made an exception as he shared a “special relationship” with Siddaramaiah.
“I have come here as I share a special relationship with Siddaramaiah. Of course, I like the person Siddaramaiah ji. But I also share his views, his compassion for the poor and the weak. I also appreciate the way Siddaramaiah ran the last government of Karnataka. It gave a direction to the people of Karnataka and it believed in the idea of fairness for everybody. That is completely different from what we see in the current BJP government. If Congress brought people together to harmony, the BJP divided people. The BJP’s corruption goes against Basavanna’s teachings,” said Gandhi, who also compared the welfare schemes of the Congress government with that of the BJP.
"People still remember Siddaramaiah government’s Anna Bhagya, Ksheera Bhagya, Pashu Bhagya, Vidya Siri and Indira Canteen schemes. If UPA gave Right to Food, farm loan waiver and MNREGA to people, the BJP’s flagship scheme at the Centre was demonetisation and GST which destroyed small and medium businesses and farmers. Demonetisation was transfer of money from the poor people of the country to the hands of a few rich. A flawed GST imposed on people is designed to destroy the lives of the poor, farmers and workers. Ask the small businessmen they would tell you both demonetisation and GST are a national disaster, and designed to handover the wealth to people close to the PM. If UPA gave Rs 72,000 crore to farmers as farm loan waiver, the Modi government brought in farm laws to loot the farmers and transfer wealth to the rich. Every scheme of Congress distributes wealth to the poor. The BJP/RSS takes away your wealth and gives it to the richest people of India,” mocked Gandhi.