By P.T. Bopanna
Outgoing Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, the messiah of the poor people was ousted in a ‘palace coup’ engineered Sonia Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Vadra.
With this one blunder, the Congress party, controlled by the Gandhi-Nehru family, has written its own epitaph and will be wiped out in Karnataka in the 2028 Karnataka Assembly elections.
The palace coup dislodged Siddaramaiah, the longest-serving chief minister of Karnataka, and propped up deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar, known for his money and muscle power.
I have experienced first-hand the repercussions of the arrogance of the Gandhi family. I will narrate it later in this article on how my report was misused by my editor during the sacking of another chief minister Veerendra Patil by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi several decades ago.
Back in 1990, the then Congress President Rajiv Gandhi made an abrupt announcement to replace Karnataka Chief Minister Veerendra Patil at the HAL Airport tarmac in Bengaluru, when reporters brought to his notice the health condition of the incumbent chief minister who was recovering from a stroke.
Being a dynast, Rajiv did not bother with the fact that the election of the chief minister is done by the Congress legislature party. Rajiv’s arrogance turned the Lingayat community against Congress and made way for the BJP bloom in Karnataka.
Present leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, gave a new lease of life to his moribund party a few years ago, through his Bharat Jodo Yatra by focussing on economic disparities, social polarisation and unemployment.
In keeping with his image following the yatra, Rahul Gandhi nurtured and backed Siddaramaiah who championed the cause of the marginal sections. But his mother Sonia and sister Priyanaka pulled the strings to sack Siddaramaiah on May 26 when the Congress leaders met in Delhi to strategise upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
How the two Gandhi women engineered the coup to oust Siddaramaiah has been recorded for posterity by the following NDTV report:
“It all happened after the leaders broke for lunch and Rahul Gandhi went home for his meal and held discussions with his mother, Sonia Gandhi, and sister, Priyanka Gandhi. Reports suggest that Rahul informed them that apart from the general meeting where they discussed the Rajya Sabha and legislative council nominations from Karnataka, he had one-on-one deliberations with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, where nothing much emerged.
“At this point, Sonia reminded Rahul about the ‘commitment’ she had made to Shivakumar and suggested that it was time to honour it. Priyanka, who had always backed Shivakumar, reportedly argued that given his long-standing loyalty and consistent support to the party, he deserves a chance to lead now – especially as Siddaramaiah has already had his tenure and would be 80 by the next Assembly elections.
“As the group consisting of Malikarjun Kharge, KC Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar reconvened after lunch, Rahul Gandhi, who walked in a few minutes later and took his seat, looked at Siddaramaiah straight and told him he would have to step down. It seems there was a stunned look on Siddaramaiah’s face when Rahul broke the bad news to him. He had always counted on Rahul Gandhi as his strongest supporter, who played a key role on both occasions when he became the Chief Minister and always backed him”.
His Ahinda politics helped Congress secure 43% vote share and 135 seats in 2023, including 21 of 36 SC seats and 14 of 15 ST seats.
Now coming back to my story on how my report was misused to tarnish the image of Veerendra Patil, I have to go back to 1990 when I was working for The Times of India, Bangalore.
From my contacts, I heard that the then chief minister Veerendra Patil used to go ‘underground’ on occasions when he could not be reached by anyone. I was told that Patil used to go to the Birla guest house on the outskirts of Bangalore and clear important official files, as he did not wish to be disturbed by others.
After I heard about this, one day I informed my then resident editor and with his permission, I went to the guest house in a taxi. It was a magnificent building in the lap of nature. Of course, I did not meet anyone there.
In the next few days, I gathered information on the various projects approved by the Patil government involving the Birlas. I handed over the report to the resident editor. He did not release the report for publication and sat over it for a long time.
Coming to my report on Veerendra Patil, it was released on the day Rajiv Gandhi made his announcement to sack Patil during his interaction with the press at Bangalore HAL airport.
The timing of the publication of my report in Times of India shocked me. Here was a chief minister who had suffered a stroke and convalescing. It was not the right time to ‘expose’ Patil-Birla links.
Instead of being elated with the report being front-paged, I felt hurt that an ailing man was being targeted.
People of Karnataka, especially the marginalised, will not forget how their beloved Siddaramaiah was sacked unceremoniously.
