As DKShi loyalists head to Delhi, CM Siddaramaiah convenes emergency agriculture meeting

Bengaluru: With the Congress government nearing two and a half years in office, the long-expected power-sharing turbulence has begun to surface, triggering visible friction between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar’s camp.

As Agriculture Minister N. Cheluvarayaswami — a prominent DKShi loyalist — abruptly flew to Delhi on Thursday along with several ministers and MLAs, the political temperature in Karnataka rose sharply, prompting the Chief Minister to move into damage-control mode.

Cheluvarayaswami’s Delhi visit, seen as a show of strength by the DKShi faction, comes a day after senior leader S. Suresh took a veiled dig at the government, signalling growing impatience among Shivakumar’s supporters over the Congress’s unfulfilled promise of rotational chief ministership.

Sensing the political implications, Siddaramaiah cancelled his scheduled stay in Mysuru on Thursday night and rushed back to Bengaluru. In a sudden administrative manoeuvre, the Chief Minister called for an emergency meeting of agriculture ministers on Friday morning at 10:30 am at his official residence, ‘Kaveri’.

Officially, the meeting is being convened to discuss urgent maize procurement issues. However, political observers suggest that the CM’s move is largely intended to counter the DKShi camp’s Delhi mobilisation and to persuade Cheluvarayaswami to return to Bengaluru.

The timing of the meeting — coinciding with Cheluvarayaswami’s presence in Delhi — has sparked intense speculation. While the agenda cites procurement challenges, insiders say Siddaramaiah is attempting to defuse the situation before it escalates into an open confrontation within the ruling party.

Sources close to the DKShi group say Cheluvarayaswami has taken up the mantle of their leadership in this phase of internal pressure politics. Whether he will heed Siddaramaiah’s call and return for the meeting or remain in Delhi to continue the show of strength remains the key question.

As the Congress enters a sensitive political phase, all eyes are now on Friday’s developments, which may signal whether the government moves toward reconciliation — or deeper factional tension.

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