With Siddaramaiah leading the charge, only a miracle can save the Karnataka government

The rumblings in the JD(S)-Congress coalition are getting louder and do not seem to subside. The Congress high command has stepped in and asked the state unit to ensure stability of the government. Go to the coordination committee, not the media, the high command has advised.

The trouble this time has been created by the chairman of the coordination committee, Siddaramaiah. A video of him in which he expresses doubts over whether the government would complete the second term is the bone of contention.

While many Congress leaders have been fire-fighting, Siddaramaiah continues to remain silent on the remark.

Siddaramaiah who is away in Ujire for treatment has been meeting with several leaders over the past couple of days. Although all leaders say that the meeting was nothing to do with politics, but to enquire about the health of the leader, sources say that there are attempts being made to corner Chief Minister, H D Kumaraswamy, who is set to present the state budget on July 5.

Several leaders of the Congress led by Ramesh Jarkiholi landed at Mangalore today to meet Siddaramaiah. They drove down to Ujire to call on the leader, but maintained that it was only a courtesy call. Sources however indicated that the 12 leaders of the Congress along with Siddaramaiah would look to corner Kumaraswamy.

Siddaramaiah who heads the coordination committee was not in favour of a full budget. He had even opposed the idea of farm loan waiver.

Political analysts say that this has become a game of one-upmanship. Many within the Congress feel that the JD(S) would look to score brownie points ahead of the 2019 elections. The Congress high command on the other hand wants the coalition to last at least until 2019. The big question is whether the big-wigs in the state Congress would allow that to happen.

Leading the charge against Kumaraswamy is Siddaramaiah. A former leader of the JD(S), his relations with the Deve Gowda family is nothing to tom-tom about. The fact that he would want to embarrass the party and also the JD(S) is not surprising. His remarks on the life of the coalition has not gone down well with Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. G Parameshwar. He said that some persons are trying to destabilise the government by making irrelevant statements. It must also be noted that Siddaramaiah and Parameshwar do not exactly share cozy ties after the former beat the latter into becoming CM in 2013.

The rumblings in the coalition have brought Deve Gowda into the picture. He would hold discussions with the Congress high command on the statements made by Siddaramaiah. He would also discuss the farm loan waiver.

Analysts say that the alliance may scrape through till 2019. The two parties are not on the same page regarding any issue. Be it the budget, allocation of portfolios or farm loan waiver, the leaders of the respective parties have differed on all these issues. Both parties would look to give their best so that they could set the stage for the 2019 elections.

It all about one-upmanship for now, with both parties trying to earn brownie points ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year. Going by the everyday happenings, it appears as though the Congress-JD(S) would need a miracle to complete a full term in Karnataka.