Bengaluru: In the run-up to the May 10 elections in Karnataka, the talk of a Congress chief minister has centred around only two personalities – Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar. But now, the name of a third leader – Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge – has gained currency, ironically because of one of the contenders, Shivakumar. DKS, as he is known, on April 8, either unintentionally or deliberately, said he has no qualms against working under Kharge, “My senior in politics by 20 years.”As of now, the discussion is of course premature – but it has nevertheless given impetus to the possibility of a Dalit chief minister in the event of the Congress coming to power in the state.“If Kharge becomes the CM, I’ll welcome it and I will be happy to work with him,” DKS remarked as he spoke to reporters. Kharge is a Dalit, while Siddaramaiah belongs to the Kuruba community, one of the backward communities in the state. DKS is a Vokkaliga. The veteran Congressman has never quite invoked his Dalit identity and has never expressed any chief ministerial ambitions, though he came close to the seat more than once. Resenting being billed as a Dalit leader, he has often said he came up on his own standing and not because he was a Dalit.So far, the talk of Kharge as a chief ministerial candidate rarely figured in the public, as conversation centred around only Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar. The last two, considered rivals, are firm contenders for the job. It was only last week that a newspaper (wrongly) reported a remark purportedly made by Siddaramaiah to a TV channel, that the high command won’t make DKS the chief minister. The former immediately trashed the report, calling it baseless, and asked the news channel to take down the interview.Shivakumar elaborated on Kharge: “Kharge is my leader. He is my president. He is 20 years my senior. We have to respect his seniority and sacrifices. In the event of him becoming CM of Karnataka, I am ready to work with him.” He added that “Kharge is an asset to the nation and the state. I will abide by any decision that the party takes. He resigned at midnight as the Opposition leader. From a block leader, he has become the national president of the Congress. I will work with happiness if he is made the CM.” Soon after this, Siddaramaiah said both he and DKS and a couple of others were chief ministerial aspirants. “There is nothing wrong in aspiring to become CM,” he said and added, “First, if Congress comes to power, the MLAs will meet and suggest the name of the leader, then the high command, in consultation with the MLAs, will nominate the CM.”Also read: With a Bitter Rivalry Within, the BJP in Karnataka Looks Different From Everywhere ElseDKS’s statement is being interpreted as his effort to checkmate Siddaramaiah, who was chief minister once from 2013 to 2018 and the first chief minister to complete a five-year term in decades. No Dalit has ever been the chief minister of Karnataka – the state has seen nine Lingayats, six Vokkaligas, four OBCs, two Brahmins and one Rajput as chief minister since 1947. Dalits number around 20% of the population in the state.Kharge missed becoming chief minister thrice in the past. Perhaps the senior-most Congressman in the state at present, Kharge has never changed parties ever since he entered Congress in 1969. Kharge lost out to his friend Dharam Singh in 2004, Siddaramaiah in 2013 and to Janata Dal’s H.D. Kumaraswamy in 2018. JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, had recently said he would have agreed to Kharge had the Congress suggested his name for the chief minister’s post in 2018.It is not known if Kharge, now holding bigger responsibilities as Congress president as well as Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, is interested in becoming chief minister, should the Congress come to power in the state.Kharge, the first from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to become Congress chief after 24 years, won a record 10 consecutive elections including nine times to the state assembly and once the to Lok Sabha. His defeat in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 was the first electoral loss he tasted. Kharge hails from Gulbarga in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, a backward area, while Siddaramaiah and DKS are from South Karnataka. Siddaramaiah is from Mysuru district and DKS from Kanakapura near Bengaluru.There are two other Dalit Congress leaders who are aspirants to the chief minister’s post: former deputy chief minister G. Parameshwara and former Union minister of state K.H. Muniyappa. Lingayat leader M.B. Patil too has thrown his hat in the ring.B.S. Arun is a senior journalist based in Bengaluru.
