While the tussle continued on Tuesday between former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar for the top post with both reaching Delhi, different communities have begun demanding that the party high command appoint their leaders/MLAs for the post of the Chief Minister and also be given plum portfolios.
With the Congress bagging more than 42.91% of votes and 135 Assembly seats following widespread support of Veerashaiva-Lingayat, Vokkaliga, Kuruba, Idiga, Dalit, Muslim, and other communities and from across most regions, striking a balance in the power-sharing process will remain a major challenge for the party. Seers and leaders of different communities have already begun exerting pressure on the Congress high command.
In view of next year’s Parliamentary polls, the Congress will be under pressure to give adequate representation to dominant communities such as Vokkaliga and Veerashaiva-Lingayat, who have many MLAs, while not offending other communities, given that it was the support of a broad rainbow social coalition that voted it to power.
