'Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar infighting pushing Congress towards darkness'

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 24 : The ongoing leadership tussle between former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and state Congress chief DK Shivakumar is "pushing the party towards darkness", said a senior leader of the party.
The fight for the chief ministerial post in the upcoming Assembly election in the state due next year continues to deepen with the war of words flaring up from both the Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar factions.
The war has put the senior Congress leaders in a spot of bother about the present shape of the party. According to most of the party leaders, infighting has already become a "nightmare" for many Congress leaders.
Seniors leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge, G Parameshwara, who were also the front runners for the Chief Ministerial post when Siddaramaiah became the CM in 2013, have also tried all possible methods to bring the conflict to an end. According to the party leaders, the infighting is washing away the name of Congress, not only in the state but also at the national level, thus becoming a matter of concern for the party high command including Rahul Gandhi, in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala, and KC Venugopal.
Recently, reacting to Karnataka Congress MLA Zameer Ahmad's statement that Siddarmaiah should be the chief ministerial candidate for the state, KPCC president DK Shivakumar on Saturday said that everyone should work to bring the party to power instead of worshipping any individual.
Karnataka Congress MLA and a close follower of Siddaramaiah hit back at Congress President DK Shivakumar and said, "It is my opinion to say Siddaramaiah should be the next Chief Minister."
The two factions have emerged following the infighting between the two top leaders of the state Congress.
Congress, which is putting in efforts to win the election next year, clinching the chief ministerial office once again is divided between the "base" group and "enterers" group.
The BJP has marked its entry into the political crisis surrounding Congress as BJP state president Nalinkumar Kateel tweeted, "Party workers from @siddaramaiah and @DKShivakumar who have disturbed the sleep of many in their party due to the illusion of CM. Disillusioned. The people of the state know that the weak high command is unable to fix the internal conflict, and if power is given to him, conflict is guaranteed."
The BJP has taken a dig at Shivakumar and said that he should have put up a fight against Siddaramaiah earlier, and not with a delay.
"DK Shivakumar should have woken up as soon as there was a whisper in the KPCC office. Siddaramaiah's toolkit game had already started, beheading the innocent. Now Siddaramaiah has started another round of toolkit farce, BJP teased that this time it will be a big hunt," the BJP said.
"Siddaramothsava is the political toolkit of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his faction. This is part of a systematic political agenda, the aim of which is the annihilation of the original Congress," the BJP added.
However, according to Congress sources, the "same over-confidence" made the party lose the election in 2017.
"We had to form a coalition government with HD Kumaraswamy. Even then, Siddaramaiah's ego wasn't satisfied and many leaders left his side. It's time to analyse the present situation in the country. Top leadership tried to convince both the leaders, but none of them is willing to back off," said the sources.
Senior party leaders are also trying to convince Shivakumar who is playing the Vokkaliga card to be the next CM, and who also made a statement that it's obvious for a president to become CM.
Meanwhile, MB Patil, president of the campaign committee and Lingayat leader said that he's also capable of becoming CM and he doesn't have any interest in any fights.