Bengaluru: The man may no longer be chief minister. But it is Kuruba strongman Siddaramaiah who has taken charge of a Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition in virtual freefall. After a closed door meeting with 'chief rebel' Ramesh Jarkiholi in Bengaluru on Monday, he is flying the key players in this drama to Delhi on Tuesday for a meeting with party chairperson Rahul Gandhi, in a bid to rein in the ambitious D.K. Shivakumar whose leg up to the women's wing chair Laxmi Hebbalkar sparked off the Jarkiholi mutiny in the Lingayat-dominated north.
Ms Hebbalkar incidentally is heading to Delhi too, for a private visit.
Amid persistent reports that state BJP leader Mr. B.S. Yeddyurappa is openly wooing disgruntled Congress MLAs to get the numbers he needs to form a government, BJP sources told DC that this was being done by the former BJP chief minister without the overt support of BJP chief Amit Shah.
Meanwhile, the Congress’ crisis manager Siddaramaiah stirring the political whirlpool in Karnataka will not only put all the other chief ministerial hopefuls in the shade, he may also thwart the plan by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy - who, incidentally praised Siddaramaiah as always putting the interests of the coalition first - to cut the co-ordination committee chairperson to size.
At the Wednesday meeting with Rahul Gandhi, as he deals with the demands of Congress legislators unhappy at being denied a Cabinet berth, Mr Siddaramaiah must pacify his followers like the Jarkiholis who refused to discuss their issues with Congress leaders who had forged a working relationship with the JD(S), like Deputy Chief Minister, Dr G Parameshwar and others. "If Siddaramaiah is able to resolve the current crisis involving the Jarkiholi brothers, he will be unassailable, neither HDK nor D.K.Shivakumar can touch him," sources said.
