Bengaluru: Is it a mere coincidence that just two days after former CM Siddaramaiah landed in the city after a Europe tour, the crisis which almost brought down the Kumaraswamy government, blew over with the Jarkiholis-considered pretty close to the former CM—scoring a major victory leaving many a Congressman wondering how it all happened and ended? This has also raised the pertinent question—did the rebels who include a substantial chunk of Congress MLAs from North Karnataka— have the quiet backing of Siddaramaiah— whose relations with CM Kumaraswamy have been anything but cordial in the past.
On Tuesday evening, immediately after the Jarkiholis spoke to the media saying they would not quit the Congress, Mr Siddaramaiah tweeted blaming the BJP for engineering an unsuccessful crisis. But the circumstantial evidence suggests that he could have used the crisis to his advantage to emerge as a rallying point for the Congress rebels and also send a message to the party top brass that he was the only one who could save the coalition. The fact that the rebellion ended just two days after his return, was enough to prove his abilities as a ‘trouble-shooter’ to the high command.
A leader privy to this development told Deccan Chronicle that the group loyal to Siddaramaiah fed every bit of information—right or wrong—to the media with the twin objective of boosting his image, which had suffered a slump after the Congress tally fell from 120 plus to 78 in the Assembly polls. In the course of the crisis, he also ensured that he had the subtle support of the rebels and had the last laugh making Mr Kumaraswamy relent and concede to their demands.
