A dinner meeting of a select group of senior ministers of the Congress-led Karnataka government – mostly from the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities – has triggered fresh speculations of a push from a section of the party for the appointment of more Deputy Chief Ministers besides D K Shivakumar. The dinner meeting, the second one of its kind, was held on January 4 at the residence of senior Congress leader and public works minister Satish Jarkiholi and is seen as part of a Congress section's strategy to keep Shivakumar, who is also state party unit chief, in check. The meeting was held amid fresh developments in a 2019 corruption case against Shivakumar, including a CBI appeal against the decision of the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government to withdraw consent for the central agency to investigate corruption charges against the Deputy CM. Unlike the previous dinner meeting held at the residence of home minister G Parameshwara in October 2023, the meeting this time was not attended by CM Siddaramaiah. It was attended by Parameshwara, social welfare minister H C Mahadevappa, food minister K H Muniyappa – who are all Dalit leaders – along with cooperation minister K N Rajanna and Jarkiholi, who are from the Valmiki Nayak ST community, and health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, a Brahmin face. Most of these ministers are considered to be close to Siddaramaiah. Following the meeting, the ministers indicated that various issues were discussed, including the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and appointments of additional Deputy CMs. Some of them are also being considered by the state Congress as possible candidates in their regions for the Lok Sabha polls, viewed in some quarters as a strategy to weaken the political hold of the leaders in state politics. “We discussed the challenges before us – the Lok Sabha polls, the party organisation, the need to give prominence to party workers,” Jarkiholi said Friday. “We did not speak on the issue of a Dalit CM. There is a convention for Dalits on January 28 at Chitradurga and after that there is an SC/ST meeting in Davanagere in February.” Jarkiholi said he and others had recommended the appointment of additional Deputy CMs and that the matter had been before the Congress high command. “(Cooperation minister) Rajanna has raised the issue of having more Deputy CMs on many occasions. Even we recommended it. Ultimately, our party leaders must decide is what we have said. We all have to wait for the decision. There is no plan at present to meet the high command on this,” he said. Rajanna said he was of the view that the appointment of more Deputy CMs from caste groups that support the Congress will benefit the party in the Lok Sabha polls. “I am not speaking on behalf of any political leader. It is my view that if three Deputy CMs are appointed, it will benefit the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls. It is up to the party to decide. They will not take a decision based on my suggestion but I have brought this to their notice,” Rajanna said. He cited the recent instances of the appointment of multiple Deputy CMs in three heartland states by the BJP. “In the states the BJP won recently – Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh – they have appointed multiple Deputy CMs. So I feel it would be appropriate to appoint more Deputy CMs in the state,” he said. Last year, Rajanna had written to the Congress high command to consider appointment of the Deputy CMs from the Dalit, ST and Lingayat communities to consolidate their support, which had helped the Congress win the Karnataka Assembly polls in May last year. “It is high time for us to speak out in the interest of the party. If we lose in the polls, the high command will question us on why we lost. We have to tell them about measures that should be taken for the polls to be easier for the party,” Rajanna said. Parameshwara downplayed the Deputy CM issue and said the January 4 meeting discussed the issues of the SC and ST communities. “We cannot reveal what happened in the meeting because the media itself has labelled it a secret meeting. One of the issues was regarding the SC/ST conference we held before the Assembly polls and there were about 10 resolutions called the Chitradurga Declaration. We wanted to discuss the implementation of these resolutions,” the home minister said. “In Rajanna’s view, it is good to have three more Deputy CMs. We do not know what is in the mind of the party high command. If the high command feels that we will win more seats in the Lok Sabha with the addition of more Deputy CMs, then they will do it. My view is the same as the view of the party high command,” he said. Two other ministers who attended the meeting – Mahadevappa and Muniyappa – did not comment. Shivakumar, who was not invited for either of the two dinner meetings, refused to comment. “The high command will respond. It is not an issue that I would like to comment on. We all have to work together to win the Parliament elections,” he said on the question of the appointment of additional Deputy CMs. Shivakumar may become the Karnataka CM when the Congress government reaches the mid-point of its term in 2025. He has been on a public interaction overdrive in recent weeks, holding multiple “janata darshans (public meetings)” in Bengaluru. He is reported to have vetoed the appointment of additional Deputy CMs in May 2023 when the Congress romped to power under his leadership. “The dinner meeting held this week is intended mostly to keep Shivakumar in check since he is once again asserting himself in the government and party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls,” state party insiders said. The issue of additional Deputy CMs was raised last October as well by Jarkiholi and Rajanna amid reports of interference by Shivakumar in the politics of Belagavi – a region considered to be Jarkiholi’s bastion, who had said at the time that there was a proposal to appoint more Deputy CMs. “There is a discussion to make three Deputy CMs and not me alone. It has to be discussed. I have not made a claim to be made a Deputy CM. I am a minister and have a big portfolio and this requires a lot of time,” he had said. “The intention of Jarkiholi is not to create trouble for the party. Jarkiholi is eligible to be the CM and not just Deputy CM. That is a different matter. We have raised the issue of appointing more Deputy CMs with the high command. It is the high command that has to take a call,” Rajanna had said in October. Though Siddaramaiah has not commented on the issue, he indicated last year that he would be the CM for a full five-year term.
