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Newsmaker | D K Shivakumar: The architect who prepared the Karnataka Congress for victory

While Siddaramaiah is the political face of the party, astute in caste politics and administration, it was the heads-down approach of DK to tactics and strategy that largely paid off for the Congress

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar is being touted as a CM face along with senior party leader Siddaramaiah. (PTI)

THE ONE person for whom the clear majority for the Congress party in the Karnataka polls will taste the sweetest is 60-year-old state party chief D K Shivakumar.

The former minister who was appointed Karnataka PCC chief in 2020 despite being arrested a year earlier by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering, fought a long, uphill battle to bring the party to position of power.

Once considered a blue-eyed boy of former Congress chief minister S M Krishna, Shivakumar appeared to have run aground following the corruption cloud hanging over him from his time as minister during the Congress tenures of 1999-2004 and 2013-2018. Now, he is a frontrunner to be CM of Karnataka.

While his main rival for the post, former CM Siddaramaiah, is considered an astute politician in terms of caste politics and administration, it is largely the heads-down approach to electoral tactics and strategy which Shivakumar adopted – with the central leadership’s help – that delivered the results for the Congress.

Even when the BJP baited the Congress and tried to drag leaders like Siddaramaiah into verbal jousting on communal issues – which would play into the BJP’s hands — Shivakumar asked party leaders to keep their focus on real issues of the people.

“Siddaramaiah is a good politician but he is not very good at tactics and strategy or organising the party. The arrival of Shivakumar changed the situation and there was more focus on strategy and tactics. This helped transform the Karnataka Congress into a well-oiled unit instead of a disparate group with loyalties spread all around,” a young Congress MLA candidate said, ahead of the polls

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Tactics that Shivakumar adopted of a frontal attack on the perceived corruption in the BJP government by utilising the services of the state contractors’ association, among others, and the ‘PayCM’ campaign against Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai – through the advice of consultants like Sunil Kanagolu – paid dividends by capitalising on underlying public anger over inflation and the rising cost of living.

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Shivakumar is also believed to have been at the heart of decisions like dissuading Siddaramaiah from contesting in two seats and the choice of several candidates against the preferences of other leaders.

The Congress was helped to some extent by the record of its previous government led by Siddaramaiah, which was seen to have provided a clean and pro-people governance, including a slew of populist schemes which were discontinued by the BJP government.

The Congress now faces the challenge of deciding on a CM between Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, who were the local faces of the party for the polls. Some Congress leaders have indicated that the central leadership has proposed a power-sharing deal with the two leaders dividing time in the seat.