Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jan 2: With an eye on the next assembly election, Congress leaders have been doing their best to project themselves as above the others, duly showing the others in poor light, in order to emerge as undisputed leaders. As the competition for hogging the limelight sometimes turns ugly and unwarranted, there are reports that the party's national leadership has been approached with complaints against Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar, and former chief minister and leader of the opposition Siddaramaiah.

D K Shivakumar (left) and Siddaramaiah

A faction within the party has been unhappy with the way Siddaramaiah has been working, duly blaming him for not respecting the idea of collective leadership. A few legislators have also raised their voices against D K Shivakumar in the party forums, accusing him of not taking others along, not organizing the party at the grassroot level and not raising voice against the government. Even the high command has reportedly analysed that lack of coordination between the leaders and the inability to take everyone along have been the major reasons for the party's lacklustre performance in different levels of elections.

A team led by an MLC, in a letter addressed to the high command, said that everything is not well within the party. The group said that the policy of collective leadership is not being followed and leaders are trying to project themselves individually. They have warned that this will hurt the party's future prospects. They have mentioned about Siddaramaiah's ambition to fight from Chamrajpet constituency and expressed the wish that this attempt should be foiled. It is said that a few MLAs of the party, under the leadership of a council member who has a good rapport with the national leadership, held a meeting to discuss the issues.

Even D K Shivakumar has been accused of not taking others with him and in spite of being the state president of the party, of not raising his voice against the chief minister. His detractors feel that even when there were enough chances to floor the ruling party, Shivakumar has been allowing the opportunities to slip away. Several such letters have reportedly gone to the national leaders of the party.

The other charge Shivakumar's opponents have levelled is that he takes into confidence only the people's representatives from his family and not taking leaders into confidence even at the state level. It would be pertinent to recall that former union minister K H Muniyappa, had mentioned about lack of coordination within the party at a meeting here.

In the meantime, Shivakumar has taken a decision to tour the state from January 5 to  18 during which he plans to meet block Congress presidents and listen to their grievances and opinions. He said 2021 will be the year of strengthening the organization for his party and that he will carry on the fight by keeping in mind local problems.