D.K Shivakumar Prevails In Power Struggle In Karnataka

With great persuasion, the sitting CM, Siddaramaiah, agreed to hand over the chair to his deputy, D K Shivakumar, as was decided after the Congress party's victory in 2023, sources say. The agreement was for two and a half years for Siddaramaiah to head the government, and after that, the chair was to be handed over to D K Shivakumar, but even after the deadline expired at the end of 2025.

Siddaramaiah did not agree to do so, and since then, the Congress high command has been pressing the CM to adhere to the commitment, but the CM was not ready and wanted to stall his nominee and instead forward three names to the high command, a source said. Shivakumar's name was nowhere to be found. Later, Rahul Gandhi directly took up the challenge to pursue the CM, and from behind the scenes, Priyanka and Sonia Gandhi tried to persuade the leaders to agree to the proposals forwarded in the party's best interests, sources say.

In a one-to-one meeting without any other party leaders, Rahul managed to convince the senior party leader and CM of Karnataka to propose the name of Shivakumar as the next CLP leader, the source said.  Now the stage is ready for Shivakumar to take the oath on the 3rd of June, along with the other ten ministers, in the first go, the source says. Probably the expansion would take place after the Rajya Sabha elections, the source says.