Despite party high command’s strict instructions, the talk about the ‘next chief minister’ refuses to die down in the ruling Congress in Karnataka. In a show of strength, Congress leader Parashuram Pujari of Hire Bagewadi and his supporters performed special pooja at Sigandur Chowdeshwari Devi temple in Belagavi on Wednesday to see his leader and state Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi as the next chief minister. They performed pooja, holding posters which had Jarkiholi’s picture and the message ‘Satish Jarkiholi, the next Chief Minister’. On Tuesday, the supporters of Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar raised the CM issue during the ‘Gandhi Bharat’ event in Belagavi. Holding a photograph of Shivakumar, who is also the Congress Karnataka unit president, the supporters raised slogans – “Shivakumar should be made the next Chief Minister”.
A Digambar Jain monk, Gunadhara Nandi, along with 18 other senior monks of the Jain order blessed Shivakumar to become the next CM.
“Today I am making this prediction that Shivakumar will become the next chief minister,” the monk announced before a huge crowd at Varur in Dharwad district on Tuesday evening. Shivakumar termed it the monk’s wish of blessing him the way he wanted. “Can we guide anyone while blessings to utter words of our choice? It is their wish. But for me, my party is important. We work based on the responsibilities given to us by our party,” Shivakumar told reporters at the Hubballi Airport on Tuesday night.
He added that he never went after any post and focused on performing his duties.”I am not in a hurry,” he quipped.
At the time of Congress coming to power in May 2023, there were reports about a pact that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would head the state for the first two and half years and Shivakumar would be the CM for the rest of the term.
While some Vokkaliga leaders started a campaign to make Shivakumar as chief minister, Jarkiholi, who is considered close to Siddaramaiah, underlined the need for a ‘full time Congress state president’.
“We ministers are not able to focus on our party works and there is a need for a full time Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president,” Jarkiholi had recently said.
His statement came a day after the Congress Legislative Party meeting where the Congress general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala conveyed the party high command’s direction that no one should speak a word on touchy issues like change of guard in the state, replacing the Congress president, cabinet expansion and revoking guarantees.
Within the party circle, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s message during the ‘Gandhi Bharat’ convention in Belagavi became a talking point.
Kharge on Tuesday called upon the leaders to learn from former Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s sacrifice in 2004. She sacrificed the prime ministerial position and gave the coveted post to late Manmohan Singh, he said.