In a sharp political attack, opposition parties BJP and JD(S) have dismissed Saturday's highly-publicized breakfast meeting between Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar as nothing more than a cosmetic display of unity. The opposition insists the ruling Congress party remains trapped in a serious internal power struggle despite the public show of camaraderie.
Opposition Leaders Decry 'Staged Unity'
R Ashoka, the opposition leader in the legislative assembly, characterized the interaction as merely a temporary truce between two rival camps within the Congress party. Ashoka directly alleged that Siddaramaiah shows no willingness to step down from his position, while Shivakumar continues to maintain that he was promised the chief ministerial role for two and a half years in the presence of six witnesses.
"If the Congress high command had power and it had the guts, then it should have asserted its authority and said that there was a power-sharing agreement and it would decide it. But it has now become weak," Ashoka stated bluntly, highlighting what he perceives as the central leadership's inability to control the situation.
Social Media Reactions and Criticism
In a post on social media platform X, Ashoka went further, suggesting the event should be renamed from a 'breakfast meeting' to a 'truce meeting between the commanders of two warring factions constantly throwing barbs at each other and sharpening their knives on a daily basis.' He particularly criticized both leaders for blaming the media, asserting that their supposed show of unity lacked any genuine friendship or warmth.
The criticism wasn't limited to the BJP. Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, the opposition leader in the legislative council, posed a pointed question: whether "a broken relationship can improve over a breakfast." Meanwhile, JD(S) state president and union minister HD Kumaraswamy urged the two Congress leaders "not to hoodwink people" with their political theater, adding caustically that "we don't know how many people would have turned insane after seeing their drama."
Root Causes of the Congress Crisis
According to opposition analysis, the current crisis stems from three fundamental issues: an intense ego clash between the top leaders, insatiable hunger for power, and deep-rooted factionalism within the ruling party. Ashoka argued that the Congress itself had fueled these tensions through various public statements about a potential "November revolution" and alleged commitments regarding power-sharing arrangements between the two factions.
Ashoka emphasized that it wasn't the opposition or media that organized group trips of MLAs to Delhi or arranged closed-door meetings – actions that he claimed clearly demonstrate the real divide between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar despite their public attempts to project harmony.
Elephant in the Swamp Analogy
BJP MP Lahar Singh offered a colorful analogy in his social media post, comparing the Congress party's predicament to "when an elephant is caught in a swamp, even a female frog would love to give it a kick" – a saying from his native Udaipur. He suggested that the Congress high command's inability to resolve the crisis meaningfully, beyond "forcing the two divorced leaders to have a cold breakfast this morning," has pushed the party deeper into political trouble.
Singh concluded with a ominous warning that "it is never easy for an elephant to get out of a swamp," indicating the Congress might find it difficult to extricate itself from this internal conflict that continues to play out in public view despite attempts at damage control.
