As Shivakumar loses out to Siddaramaiah, here’s a look at other almost-CMs of Congress
When there’s a winner, there’s usually a person who’s suffered some setback. As political aspirations are fulfilled, some hopes are dashed too.
After much deliberation and discussion in the Congress high command, Siddaramaiah was chosen as the chief minister of Karnataka on Thursday (May 18). The announcement surely wasn’t a foregone conclusion as a political drama unfolded over the tight race between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar. And it continued for days after the Karnataka election results were announced.
This might not be a complete loss for DKS as he has been made the deputy CM, with a power-sharing formula in place. However, no official announcement has been made with regard to this formula for a rotational chief ministership in Karnataka.
The rivalry between DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah is not a riddle wrapped up in an enigma. Despite Shivakumar’s undeterred party loyalty, Siddaramaiah’s mass appeal in Karnataka swayed things in his favour.
This is not the first time a key contender for the CM post had to bite the dust and witness his rival proceed to take the chief minister post. Here are five ‘almost CMs’ of Congress-ruled states who had to take the backseat.
NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU IN PUNJAB
As the chief minister’s post fell vacant in Punjab with Captain Amarinder Singh’s dramatic exit from the Congress in 2021, the names of Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sukhjinder Randhawa started doing the rounds. However, people were left surprised as Congress chose Charanjit Singh Channi, a Dalit-Sikh face, for the top job. It was a bigger loss for Sidhu, who had been eyeing the CM seat for a long time.
Amarinder Singh had expressed displeasure with the Congress high command, but his direct rivalry was always with Navjot Singh Sidhu. With Amarinder leaving the party, Sidhu’s hopes of being in the CM’s chair didn’t seem to have any hurdle left. But then the surprise came as Charanjit Singh Channi.
Closer to the 2022 Punjab Assembly polls, both Sidhu and Channi were again seen as CM probables. Channi again won the race and was announced as the CM candidate by the Congress. However, the chance never came as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) formed a government with Bhagwant Mann becoming the chief minister.
PRATIBHA SINGH IN HIMACHAL PRADESH
Unseating the BJP from power, Congress tasted victory in the 2022 Himachal Pradesh elections. With this, several names of probable CM candidates surfaced, with Pratibha Singh leading the race. Pratibha Singh is the wife of Virbhadra Singh, who passed away a year before the elections.
Arguing that the Congress used her late husband’s name to win the election, Pratibha time and again pushed her case to be chosen the CM. During the Congress legislative party (CLP) meeting in Shimla last year, Pratibha’s supporters also shouted slogans in her favour, demanding that she be made the CM.
The Congress high command, however, settled for Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu as the Himachal chief minister. Pratibha Singh licked her wounds and said she accepted the decision of the Congress high command.
TS SINGH DEO IN CHHATTISGARH
Bhupesh Baghel was appointed the chief minister of Chhattisgarh after the Congress won the 2018 Assembly elections in the state. However, there were several frontrunners in the state, including TS Singh Deo, Tamradhwaj Sahu and Charan Das Mahant. Among them all, TS Singh Deo was the biggest challenger.
Some time later, a rift grew between Deo and Baghel. In 2022, TS Singh Deo said he was dissatisfied with the functioning of the Congress-led government in the area of rural development. He had resigned from the panchayat and rural development department, one of the five portfolios held by him in the Bhupesh Baghel Cabinet.
In a letter to Baghel, he said he could not work according to the jan ghoshna patra (poll manifesto). He said he had requested funds to be allocated under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY), but that did not happen.
SACHIN PILOT IN RAJASTHAN
The ongoing infighting in the Rajasthan unit has presented a big challenge before the Congress ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot’s infamous rivalry seems to have reached its peak. Pilot on May 15 gave Ashok Gehlot 15 days to act on the corruption charges against the erstwhile Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government, failing which he threatened to launch state-wide protests.
However, this is not the first time the tussle between the two Congress leaders has come to the fore. In 2018, Pilot was in the race for the top post. But the Congress high command chose Ashok Gehlot as the chief minister, and Pilot his deputy.
Ever since, the tension has been simmering. With differences between Pilot and Gehlot currently deepening, speculations are rife that Pilot might leave the Congress.
In November 2022, Ashok Gehlot had even called Sachin Pilot a ‘gaddar’ (traitor), saying someone like him could never become the chief minister of Rajasthan. Gehlot also told a news portal that Pilot was not competent enough to replace him as the chief minister as he had revolted against the Congress in 2020 and attempted to topple the government.
DK SHIVAKUMAR IN KARNATAKA
After Congress’s massive win in the Karnataka Assembly elections, Siddaramaiah was announced as the chief minister on May 18, following days of discussion within the party high command. With the support of MLAs to his side, the 75-year-old leader managed to take the CM post for the second time in Karnataka.
It was an almost even fight with another contender, DK Shivakumar, the Karnataka Congress chief. But the Congress trouble-shooter lost out to Siddaramaiah.
DK Shivakumar’s hopes of getting the top post remained unfulfilled, despite a landslide victory for the Kankapura seat. However, there are reports of a power-sharing formula in the state, which could see Shivakumar become the CM later on, but there is no official announcement by the Congress high command. Both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah met the Congress leadership to discuss government formation recently.
Shivakumar pressed hard on his demand. He even told Mallikarjun Kharge that if he was denied the CM’s chair, he would prefer to work only as an MLA in the party.
He also told Kharge that Siddaramaiah’s tenure as CM (from (2013 to 2018) was a “misrule”. He said the Lingayat community was against the former chief minister.
Despite that, Siddaramaiah managed to grab the CM post yet again. It remains to be seen how the dynamics between him and Shivakumar will unfolds.
WHY HIMANTA BISWA SARMA AND JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA FLEW THE COOP
Then there is the case of Himanta Biswa Sarma and Jyotiraditya Scindia. Both, disgruntled after being denied the CM’s post, switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia campaigned vigorously for the Congress in the lead up to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls in 2018. Following the Congress’s huge win, Kamal Nath was chosen as the chief minister. But Kamal Nath couldn’t complete his five-year term and had to step down as the chief minister after Scindia and 22 Congress MLAs resigned from the Assembly and moved to the BJP.
Having led the Congress’s campaign successfully in 2011, Himanta wanted to be the chief minister. He was seen as the successor to then chief minister Tarun Gogoi. But the advent of Tarun Gogoi’s son, Gaurav Gogoi, on the political scene disrupted the handing over of the baton.
Himanta’s requests with the Congress high command for a change in the leadership in Assam fell on deaf ears. He resigned from the Gogoi Cabinet in July 2014, citing “family-centric” politics. Upon resigning from the Congress, he revealed he had informed Congress’s then vice-president Rahul Gandhi that 52 of the 79 MLAs had sought Gogoi’s ouster, an IANS report said.
Himanta joined the BJP and campaigned for the party for the 2016 Assembly polls. The BJP came to power in Assam that year and Sarbananda Sonowal was made the chief minister.
Himanta’s popularity soared and his hard work paid off as he was made the chief minister of Assam in 2021. An example of how a former Congress leader who quit the party as his hopes to be the chief minister were dashed, went on to realise his dreams after joining the BJP.