The contentious ‘Swabhimani Samavesha’ (rally for self-respect) in Hassan on December 5, which was conceived as a ‘show of strength’ of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, will now be a Congress party event. The CM’s close aides who had planned the rally to prep up the sulking image of Siddaramaiah embattled in the MUDA land allotment case are now miffed as KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar has taken over the preparations for the rally, determined to showcase the event as a celebration of the achievements of the Congress government.
The Siddaramaiah faction had hoped to project the Kuruba strongman as the champion of ‘Ahinda’ (an acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) and also picked Hassan in the Vokkaliga heartland, a strong JDS bastion, to get even with JDS patriarch H.D. Devegowda who had vowed to rest only after uprooting the “corrupt” Congress government.
The unilateral decision of the Siddaramaiah faction to host a mega convention, claiming it to be a thanksgiving meet organised by the oppressed classes’ organisations, did not go down well with the Shivakumar faction and also several other leaders who wanted it to be held under the party banner.
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An anonymous letter to AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge had reportedly expressed concern over the tendency of “hero worship” in the party and cautioned the party against misuse of the party platform for personal gains. Interestingly, the banners and posters used for the publicity by Siddaramaiah faction referred to the event as “Sri Siddaramaiah Swabhimani Janandolana Samavesha” (Sri Siddaramaiah fight for self-respect public rally).
In the peak of the conflict, both the chief minister and deputy chief minister landed in Delhi and met the party leadership separately.
While Siddaramaiah convinced Rahul Gandhi saying the event would help the Congress party consolidate the Ahinda votes in the JDS bastion, the party high command gave a thumbs up to Shivakumar’s idea of hosting the event under the party banner.
Shivakumar, on his return to Bengaluru, held a meeting with leaders from Mysuru, and also announced he would lead the team in the preparation for the Hassan rally. “The high command has instructed me to take up the responsibility of organising the Hassan event and I invite all those who believe in equality and the Constitution to join hands with us. We have directed the district ministers to mobilise people for the event,” said Shivakumar.
Some ministers who have been identified with Siddaramaiah’s camp skipped the preparatory meeting chaired by Shivakumar.
Earlier, senior leaders including Home Minister G. Parameshwara said that the convention was planned in Tumakuru, following the bypoll sweep by the party. However, they expressed surprise that some leaders had zeroed in on Hassan and started the preparation on their own.
Shivakumar also informed that the top brass of the party were more keen on the state government holding the much-delayed zilla and taluk panchayat elections, instead of the political rallies.
The Hassan rally is reminiscent of the ‘Siddaramotsav’ – the 75th birthday celebration of Siddaramaiah held in Davangere on August 3, 2022, which was seen as a bid to project him as the next chief minister. It was also a trigger for an open showdown between the two warring factions. Shivakumar had wanted it to be a programme to highlight the 168 peo-people poll promises implemented by the Congress government during Siddaramaiah’s first stint as the chief minister (2013-2018). Rahul Gandhi who attended the rally brokered peace and forced the two leaders to hug each other on dais.
JDS leader and Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy mocked the ‘Ahinda’ convention in Hassan, claiming that Siddaramaiah was doing what he has done earlier (hosting Ahinda convention). “He is doing the same drama he once did while quitting the JDS,” said Kumaraswamy.
Siddaramaiah claimed that he had not quit the JDS, but was expelled from the party by Devegowda.
It may be recalled that Siddaramaiah, who was in the JDS, was the deputy chief minister in the Congress-JDS coalition government led by Dharam Singh. On July 24, 2005, Siddaramaiah attended an ‘Ahinda’ rally held in Hubballi and Devegowda expelled him from the party and sacked him from the post of DCM, suspecting “anti-party” activities. Siddaramaiah, who formally joined the Congress party during a rally held in Bengaluru in September 2006, in the presence of Smt Sonia Gandhi, served as the leader of the opposition and later rose to the post of the chief minister in 2013.
This time, the Hassan rally was designed to reassert his position within the party and to project him as the champion of the ‘Ahinda’, as most of his pro-people schemes cater to the oppressed classes of people. However, the Shivakumar camp seems to have succeeded in reining in the rival faction.
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