The Congress party has successfully swept the leadership crisis in the Karnataka provincial government under the carpet, but the fire is far from extinguished, as it continues to simmer. The unsavoury episode, played out in public, has, in the process, exposed the fragility of the party and its inability to take decisions. Ignoring the elephant in the room is no solution. At best, it can buy temporary peace that may return to haunt the party, as it did in several states in recent years.

It might appear to the naked eye to be the stamp of Rahul Gandhi’s style of leadership. It is an open secret that despite holding no post in the party, he continues to take all key decisions. It might not have been solely his decision to hand over the crown to an ageing leader, Siddaramaiah, after the Congress party came to power in Karnataka in 2022, ignoring the genuine claim of a much younger DK Shivakumar.

There is a history in the party of preferring septuagenarian leaders over the younger generation. Rahul Gandhi might have been under pressure to respect his mother Sonia Gandhi’s decision in Siddaramaiah’s selection as chief minister.

However, there is little room for doubt that Rahul Gandhi must have promised Shivakumar the chief minister’s post after two and a half years of the........

© Free Press Journal