Efforts fail, prayer does not: D K Shivakumar’s cryptic post soon after meeting Rahul Gandhi revives talks of leadership change in Karnataka

In the post on X, he wrote in Kannada, “Even if efforts fail, prayer does not fail.”

ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ವಿಫಲವಾದರೂ ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥನೆ ವಿಫಲ ಆಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. pic.twitter.com/h6lcMm5WGY

— DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) January 14, 2026

Shivakumar and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah spoke briefly with Gandhi at the Mysuru airport Tuesday. Both the CM and his deputy were at the airport to receive Gandhi in the morning and send him off in the evening as the Congress leader used the Mysuru airport as a transit point between Delhi and Gudalur in Tamil Nadu.

Later, partial videos of the interaction among the three leaders surfaced. In the footage, the three are seen talking, after which Gandhi briefly speaks with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar separately.

Although the exact nature of the discussions is unclear, it is rumoured that the leaders discussed Karnataka’s campaign against scrapping the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and a possible power-sharing agreement in the state. Both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are yet to comment on the meeting.

Shivakumar’s post on Wednesday came with a small footnote that those were his words at the recently held ‘Udyami Vokkaliga’ programme. However, the post, put out shortly after his meeting with Gandhi, triggered a fresh round of speculation, with some saying Gandhi would soon convene a meeting between the two to decide on a change of guard and a Cabinet reshuffle in the state.

The tussle between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar has been marked by cryptic social media posts from both. In November last year, the two seemed to have sparred after Shivakumar posted, “Word power is world power. The biggest force in the world was to keep one’s word.” The CM responded, saying, “A Word is not power unless it betters the World for the people.”

Meanwhile, the decision by the CM and his deputy to receive and send off Gandhi in Mysuru when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was in Bengaluru drew criticism from the Opposition BJP.

“Welcoming the head of state from one of the world’s strongest economies was relegated to the back seat. Political loyalty and “high command pleasing” took priority over Karnataka’s global standing. This is not just bad optics – it reflects a deep disregard for the state’s interests,” Leader of Opposition R Ashoka said in a post on X Tuesday.