From now, internal tensions in the Karnataka Congress have boiled over into a boiling point since the ticketing of the Davanagere South by-election. What began small-scale discontent has turned into a crisis with high political repercussions to draw Housing Minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan into the core of it.
The allegations of undermining the party's prospects and inciting rebellion among the minority leaders, even as their own leaders were blamed for it, brought Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to intervene personally, deepening division within the ruling dispensation. This was at a time when Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's Long-Hour Interrogation continued.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah reportedly summoned Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan to his ‘Cauvery’ residence for a two and a half hour marathon meeting. The CM said there were some indications during this session that the Chief Minister was very troubled about the Minister's involvement in the rebellion in the minority wing of the party and that some of the members expressed frustrations over it.
The CM cautioned that the Congress High Command in Delhi is "extremely upset" by the news and insisted on an exact explanation by Zameer Ahmed. The tension has emerged with the resignations of senior minority heads like Abdul Jabbar, chief KPCC Minority Cell Chief and Nazeer Ahmed, CM’s political secretary.
The departures reverberated through the party as the two leaders were widely hailed as the keystones of the Congress’s outreach to its minorities. Those within the party have charged that Zameer Ahmed backed these rebel voices after the party selected the son, Samarth Mallikarjun son of Minister S.S. Mallikarjun as its candidate, rather than a representative of the minority community.
Zameer Ahmed’s Defense
Zameer Ahmed has reportedly denied involvement in the internal coup when he is facing punishment for it. He told the Chief Minister that he had never been present during the early stages of the Davanagere campaign in part due to his work towards election outreach to Kerala Assembly and taking time off in Mumbai.
He insisted that as loyal soldier of the party he was not involved in the resignations of Jabbar or Nazeer Ahmed. However, the so-called “rebel fire” has already tarnished the party’s image in Davanagere, a place that the Congress views as a matter of prestige. Local minority leaders have spoken of their anguish at the way their community's rights are getting trampled over.
Given complaints have already made its way to AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, Zameer Ahmed is under immense pressure to prove his innocence before the High Command.
A Test of Unity
The election process of Davanagere has turned this into a new election-style conflict and more importantly, it’s a test of Siddaramaiah’s governance and the cohesiveness within the party itself. If congress fails to be confirmed as the winner of Davanagere, it should be determined that the blame mainly falls to the factionalism which the minority leaders are now facing.
For now, the Chief Minister is concentrating on doing damage control, with a view to cooling the flames of rebellion so that they do not overshadow the party’s fortunes in the local body and general polls.
