Shivakumar loyalists reached Delhi demanding a CM change as Karnataka crossed the 2.5-year mark. Siddaramaiah fights to finish his term as Congress high command intervenes.
Brajesh Mishra
This week, the Congress administration in Karnataka reached a breaking point when lawmakers who supported Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar traveled to Delhi to demand that he be appointed Chief Minister, citing a purported 2.5-year power-sharing arrangement with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The conflict reached its zenith On November 20, 2025, as the government surpassed the 2.5-year mark that, according to Shivakumar's camp, signifying his leadership transition.
The roots of the dispute lie back to May 2023, when the Congress won Karnataka and struggled to choose between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar for the top job. Siddaramaiah became Chief Minister, while Shivakumar accepted the Deputy CM post and the presidency of the KPCC but reports at the time suggested an unwritten rotational CM arrangement a claim that was never officially confirmed stating that it would transfer power at the 2.5-year mark and by November 20, 2025, over a dozen Shivakumar-aligned MLAs had arrived in Delhi to press the matter prompting Siddaramaiah to cancel engagements and assert he would “present the next budget myself”. The crisis eased only after Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge stepped in.
Siddaramaiah is the Chief Minister and at 77, he is defending his position and is weeks away from becoming Karnataka’s longest-serving CM stating: “I will present the next budget myself… my power has only gotten stronger.”
D. K. Shivakumar is the Deputy Chief Minister & KPCC President and is symbolic to the party’s younger faction, backed by a bloc of loyal MLAs.
Mallikarjun Kharge is the Congress President and the silent arbiter whose decision shapes the fate of the government.
While most coverage has framed this as a personality battle over an alleged rotational CM agreement, the deeper story actually feels like governance paralysis. For 2.5 years, Karnataka’s government has operated under the shadow of a potential mid-term leadership switch while key files infrastructure expansions, cabinet appointments, district postings, urban reforms have stalled as both factions prioritized political positioning over policymaking.
This crisis exposes a deeper structural truth that the Congress lacks mechanisms to resolve internal power conflicts and relying on ad-hoc firefighting that drains administrative momentum.
Shivakumar’s retreat does not end the conflict, it pauses it and the next milestone arrives on January 6, 2026, when Siddaramaiah becomes Karnataka’s longest-serving CM, strengthening his case to complete the term. Caste dynamics complicate any leadership change:
Any shift risks destabilising the Congress’s electoral coalition and If governance continues to take a back seat to factional bargaining, the crisis could erode the Congress’s only major state government and undermine its national narrative at a critical moment.
If a ruling party spends more time managing internal rebellions than governing the state, how long before the cracks become permanent?
There is no written agreement. Only an alleged verbal understanding claimed by Shivakumar’s camp. Congress leadership has never formally confirmed it.
To meet the Congress high command and demand that the CM post be transferred to Shivakumar as the government crossed 2.5 years in power.
He argues he was appointed for a full five-year term and is weeks away from becoming Karnataka’s longest-serving Chief Minister.
Around 12–15 MLAs publicly aligned with him — influential but still a minority within Congress’s 135–140 MLAs.
As Congress President, Kharge is the final authority. His silence has shaped the crisis, and his intervention forced Shivakumar to back down temporarily.
Uncertain. For now, the high command appears committed to letting Siddaramaiah finish his term.
Exclusive Content
Sign up for the Daily newsletter to get your biggest stories, handpicked for you each day.
Trending Now! in last 24hrs
