G 24 Hours Digital Bureau: Ending all speculations, Siddaramaiah is finally taking the post of Chief Minister of Karnataka. Besides, DK Shivakumar will take oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state. The guest list invited to Siddaramaiah’s swearing-in ceremony is also quite impressive. Chief Ministers of other states, leaders of opposition parties will all be present. But it is notable that several ABIJP heavyweight leaders were left out of the invitees. But what is the significance?
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Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge invited 11 top opposition leaders including Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, NCP leader Sharad Pawar. But what is significant is that the Congress refrained from inviting some non-BJP Chief Ministers to this grand function. These include Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Telangana’s K Chandrasekhar Rao, Andhra Pradesh’s YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan, Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik.
Because Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao since late 2022 is preparing to form a third front by uniting opposition parties to challenge the BJP and Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. KCR’s BRS organized a massive rally in January this year. Several leaders including CPM’s Pinarayi Vijayan, AP’s Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, JDS’s HD Kumaraswamy were invited.
However, no Congress leader was invited. Although KCR’s political career started at the hands of the Congress. But since forming his own party in April 2001, he has stayed away from the grand old party. Like KCR’s BRS, Arvind Kejriwal’s UP and BJP-Congress emerged as alternatives to both parties. In Delhi, where the AAP government is in power, Kejriwal’s party is clashing with the Congress. In 2013, Kejriwal’s UP entered electoral politics by defeating the Sheila Dixit-led Congress in Delhi.
Nine years later, the same thing happened again in Punjab, when UP dominated Punjab to thwart the Congress’s bid to return to power in the state. When it comes to leaders like Jagan Reddy, Pinarayi Vijayan and Navid Patnaik regionally, the Congress either contests directly in their respective states or is seen silently supporting the BJP-led NDA government.
Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP, which defeated the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, has previously backed the NDA government at the Center and Chief Minister Jagan Reddy is also considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress-led United Democratic Front directly contested the 2021 assembly elections in Kerala with the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front. And politics is clear about BJD chief Naveen Patnaik. The Chief Minister of Odisha recently announced that he will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly elections alone and does not want an alliance with the Congress.
So by releasing the list of leaders who were left out of Karnataka’s swearing-in ceremony, the Congress made it clear who they consider friends, who they consider enemies….
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