Siddu’s stature shrinking? Kuruba leaders cry foul as Gayatri Shantegowda yet to be made minister

BENGALURU: Will MLC Gayatri Shantegowda finally be sworn in as a minister? She declined to comment and remained guarded when contacted. However, those close to her said her silence speaks louder than any statement.

Party insiders suggested that the delay is no accident, with increasingly more fingers within the Congress pointing at one man: veteran AHINDA leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah. Congress insiders claimed that Siddaramaiah is the sole leader standing in the way of Shantegowda — a Kuruba — becoming a minister.

Sources claimed that Siddaramaiah even threatened to make his son, Minister Yathindra Siddaramaiah, resign if she was inducted. “For what fault of hers?” her supporters asked on social media, where criticism of the former chief minister has been growing steadily.

Her supporters argued that she has already paid a heavy price. After being wrongly declared the losing candidate in the 2022 MLC election, she spent nearly four years and incurred huge legal expenses to reclaim the seat, which the Supreme Court recently restored to her.

Of her original six-year term, only about a year and four months now remain. “Now comes Siddaramaiah to take away even that consolation,” one supporter said.

Siddaramaiah is also alleged to have asked her why she had not informed him that she was seeking a ministerial berth, even as he moved to block her chances, sources said.

The reaction within the Kuruba community has been sharp. Community leaders said Siddaramaiah appeared to have forgotten his own history of political injustice, how he was expelled from the Janata Dal by H D Deve Gowda and how the Kuruba community stood by him during that period and helped him become chief minister twice.

“If Kurubas and backward classes hadn’t stood by him, where would he be?” community leaders asked.

They pointed out that Siddaramaiah made his son Yathindra a minister and inducted his staunch Kuruba supporter Byrathi Suresh into the Cabinet. “Both those decisions are fine, but now he is blocking this woman. Is that fair?” the leaders asked.

Sources said Shantegowda visited Siddaramaiah’s residence multiple times but was not given an audience.

Party insiders said Siddaramaiah is pushing for MLAs Basavaraj Shivannavar or Raghavendra Hitnal for the post. Whether this is due to strategic calculations, factional balancing or something more personal remains a matter of speculation within the party.

Sources said backward-class communities are mobilising support for Shantegowda. The Kuruba Kaginele Swamiji and other community leaders have appealed to Minister Yathindra Siddaramaiah to intervene, but their efforts have yielded nothing so far.

When contacted, Siddaramaiah said, “No comments.” KPCC president B K Hariprasad, too, said, “I would not like to comment on this issue.”

However, community leaders suggested that by blocking the induction of a woman, Siddaramaiah is “slowly losing his goodwill” within the community.