Even today, whenever former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is in Mysore, he stays in his close aide Mariswami’s house, a Vokkaliga from Kuppegala, where Siddaramaiah did his schooling. But the paradox is that it is widely perceived that he is anti-Vokkaliga. So much so that, in recent days, social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp are flooded with memes and videos recalling Siddaramaiah’s days at the helm of affairs as Deputy Chief Minister, then Chief Minister of the state, and then as Chairman of the Coordination Committee of the JDS-Congress coalition government.
Siddaramaiah parted ways with the Janata Dal (S) in 2005 in pursuit of becoming an Ahinda (acronym for minorities/OBC) leader, though this was seen as ungrateful towards his guru, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. The chronology of his political innings in the memes highlights Siddaramaiah suffocating former CM S M Krishna, who eventually left the party, then dumping actor-cum-politician Ambareesh, again a Vokkaliga, and after that, dropping another Vokkaliga, Kimmane Ratnakar, to be replaced by Tanveer Sait.
The most talked about phase is Siddaramaiah’s role during the JDS-Congress coalition when HD Kumaraswamy and D K Shivkumar held the fort together. Though Dr G Parameshwar was the Deputy Chief Minister, it was widely seen as a Vokkaliga government, which didn’t auger well for Siddaramaiah, who was holding the position of Chairman of the Coordination Committee. The coalition government didn’t last long as legislators jumped ship, supposedly at the behest of Siddaramaiah, another paradox.
In over a dozen public speeches, Kumaraswamy has claimed that Siddaramaiah had an axe to grind as he couldn’t tolerate the former holding the top post. The videos also talk about how top-ranking and efficient bureaucrats were given non-executive posts as the latter believed that they were siding with Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy. If these were history, the current situation in the Congress party is the parting shot in the memes released on over 1,000 handles on major social media platforms.
The videos suggest that Zameer Ahmed Khan, MLA from Chamrajpet and Siddaramaiah’s man-friday, has been spewing venom against KPCC president D K Shivakumar at the instance of the Kuruba leader. “He cannot dare challenge D K Shivakumar, so he has unleashed Zameer to attack DKS on the issue of Chief Ministership. Though a stern warning has been issued by Randeep Surjewala, AICC General Secretary, In-charge of Karnataka, there is no change in Zameer’s attitude. His recent barbs, even after receiving notice, have been taken cognizance of. As soon as Siddaramaiah’s 75th birthday celebrations are over, the party is expected to take disciplinary action, “sources in the Congress said.
