Cease to seize

When Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar paused their battle to win the war

- PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR

That the Congress won Karnataka was no fluke. It took many sets of hands to build the victory, but the two that were most callused belonged to Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar. The two united, setting aside their longstanding rivalry and power tussle, to land their party a memorable win.

Siddaramaiah’s mass appeal combined with Shivakumar’s ability to organise men and money helped defeat the mighty Modi-Shah juggernaut. Their bonhomie, in fact, was the main reason the Congress won. The BJP was expecting them to undercut each other’s efforts and sabotage the party’s campaign. For a while, it looked that way. In July, when the leadership crisis was at its peak, Rahul Gandhi held a closed-door meeting with the two leaders in Delhi and asked them to “work together” under a “collective leadership”. And so they did.

If master strategist Shivakumar beefed up the numbers in south Karnataka with his emotional appeal to fellow Vokkaligas to help him become chief minister, Siddaramaiah launched a fierce attack on the BJP and its alleged corruption. He called the Basavaraj Bommai government a “40 per cent commission sarkar” and criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “tolerating” corruption. The “PayCM” campaign, with Bommai’s face on a QR code, was especially catchy.

Apparently, Shivakumar’s Mekedatu padyatra in the Vokkaliga belt helped not only in winning over the community, but also in energising the cadre in the Old Mysuru region.