Listen to this article:

Ending months of speculation and three years of power struggle between him and his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar over the top post, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah resigned on Thursday (May 29). Betraying no sense of the unsavoury wrangling that had continued between the Karnataka Congress’ two tallest leaders, the duo put up a united front at a press conference on Thursday as Siddaramaiah himself announced his resignation. Siddaramaiah leaves the post as the state’s longest serving chief minister, and only the sixth to have occupied the chair more than once.

Announcing his resignation, 77-year-old Siddaramaiah, a member of the Kuruba community, who is regarded as the state’s most powerful socialist leader after former chief minister D. Devaraj Urs, said that “without the Constitution” he would be grazing sheep or ploughing fields. Later in a post on X, Siddaramaiah invoked B.R. Ambedkar again and wrote:

“As someone who was born and brought up in a small village, I had never imagined that one day I would become an MLA, a Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and serve twice as the Chief Minister of Karnataka. A dream this big became possible only because of the Constitution written by Babasaheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.”

“Buddha, Basavanna, Babasaheb Ambedkar, and Mahatma Gandhi have always shown me the path. Through my forty-eight years in public life, I have always tried to stand with honesty beside the poor, the oppressed, the neglected, and those who were denied opportunities in society. That is the greatest satisfaction of my life,” he added.

The announcement on Thursday came two days after a meeting with the high command in New Delhi, when both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar met leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, amid buzz of a leadership change in the state. Photographs showed both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar at the Congress office in New Delhi, portraying a sense of unity, as opposed to the tussle that played behind the scenes over a never officially announced tenure sharing agreement after the Congress came to power in Karnataka in 2023.

Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar (Left), the new Chief Minister of Karnataka. Source: Ivan Pinto, All India Congress Committee and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee social media, X/@bengapinto

Siddaramaiah, seen as a mass leader credited with uniting the AHINDA (comprising minorities, backward communities and Dalits) as a block for the party that destabilised earlier political equations dominated by the powerful Lingayats and Vokkaligas, remained the first choice. But Shivakumar was the party veteran and organisational strongman who was largely credited with the election victory.

When Siddaramaiah was made chief minister in 2023, the agreement was that he would hold office for 2.5 years, then make way for Shivakumar in a deal meant to assuage both leaders. With that period ending last year, pressure mounted and tensions rose between the two factions and the depth of the rift came into full public view. In December, the two leaders once again sought to display unity after Siddaramaiah visited Shivakumar’s residence for breakfast and said that the two will run the government “unitedly”.

Asked at that time when Shivakumar will become the CM, Siddaramaiah had said, “When the high command says.”

On Thursday, Siddaramaiah appeared to have answered the call of the high command when he said to reporters that he was directed to step down and that he acted without any pressure.

“What pressure? I voluntarily resigned immediately after........

© The Wire