When Siddaramaiah was expelled from JD(S), blamed for collapse of Congress coalition govt

It’s Siddaramaiah’s moment. The 75-year-old Kuruba leader is all set to be sworn in as the chief minister of Karnataka for a second time.

But it has been a rollercoaster ride for Siddaramaiah, who was once expelled from the JD(S) and later blamed for bringing down a coalition government.

On Thursday, the Congress declared that Siddaramaiah would be the Karnataka chief minister and the other contender for the top job, DK Shivakumar, his deputy. The swearing-in ceremony will be held in Bengaluru on May 20.

WHEN SIDDARAMAIAH WAS EXPELLED FROM JD(S)

Ever since he joined the Congress, Siddaramaiah has often been accused of switching loyalties. In 2005, Siddaramaiah had left the JD(S) and set out to float his own political party.

However, in 2006, he ultimately joined the Congress.

Maintaining that it was not by his own free will that he quit the JD(S), Siddaramaiah even revealed that he was expelled by then party president HD Deve Gowda.

After the 2004 Assembly election, Siddaramaiah became the deputy chief minister when the Congress formed a coalition government with the JD(S).

The Congress and the JD(S) had a formula for rotation of power. But Siddaramaiah feared he would not be appointed the chief minister when the Congress was scheduled to hand over the baton in two years.

With this in mind, he launched an apolitical forum called AHINDA (Association of Minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits) and toured the state.

This irked HD Deve Gowda, who asked him to step down from the deputy chief minister’s post.

“Deve Gowda expelled me from the party for the sole reason that I held an AHINDA convention,” Siddaramaiah said. He also said that he was demoted from the deputy chief minister’s post.

“In the 2018 elections, the JD(S)-BJP defeated us by making an internal agreement. But, this time it won’t happen. Our Congress workers have decided to defeat BJP and JD(S). This time too, BJP and JDS are likely to make an internal pact,” Siddharamaiah said.

Claiming that the JD(S) only had strength in seven or eight districts of Mysore region and had no power in northern Karnataka, he pointed out how the JD(S) had never come to power on its own in the state and had always been part of a coalition government.

BLAMED FOR COLLAPSE OF JD(S)-CONGRESS COALITION

On Wednesday, two ministers in the outgoing BJP government sought to blame Siddaramaiah for the defection of a group of his party’s MLAs, which led to the collapse of the HD Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in 2019 after being in power for 14 months.

K Sudhakar and ST Somashekar, who were Health and Cooperation Ministers, respectively, were earlier with the Congress. They were among the 17 Congress-JD(S) legislators who quit as MLAs and defected to the BJP, which led to the collapse of the coalition government and paved the way for the BJP to come to power in Karnataka.

“During the JDS-Congress coalition govt in 2018, whenever MLAs (Congress) went to the then Coordination Committee Chairman Siddaramaiah with their concerns, he used to express his helplessness and say that he has no say in the govt and his constituency/district works itself are stalled,” Sudhakar claimed.

Further, Siddaramaiah used to assure MLAs to wait till the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and come what may, he said he wouldn’t allow the coalition government with the JD(S) to continue even for a single day after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he added.

Ultimately, some MLAs including him had to inevitably quit Congress and go back to the people in bypolls, to protect the ‘karyakartas’ and supporters in their constituencies, Sudhakar said, and asked “Can Shri Siddaramaiah deny the fact that he had no role, implicitly or explicitly, in this move by Congress MLAs?”

Echoing Sudhakar, Somashekar said, despite being the chairman of the coordination committee, Siddaramaiah always expressed his helplessness to address the concerns of MLAs during the Congress-JD(S) coalition government.

“No one can deny the truth that this pushed some of us to quit the party and go for bypolls,” he said.

SIDDARAMAIAH AND THE CONGRESS
Siddaramaiah’s big moment finally came in 2013. He became the chief minister after the Congress won handsomely in the Assembly polls in Karnataka. He completed his five-year term as the CM and ran the government till 2018.

In Assembly election to the 224-member Assembly held on May 10, 2023, the Congress scored an emphatic victory by bagging 135 seats. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the former prime minister HD Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19 seats, respectively.

The Congress victory gave Siddaramaiah the opportunity to become the chief minister of Karnataka for a second time. He will be sworn-in as the chief minister of Karnataka on May 20.