Last time Siddaramaiah was Karnataka Chief Minister, he was accused of not paying enough heed to public opinion. It looks like he has repeated the mistake. A good three months after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) first made allegations of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah being involved in a massive land scam in Mysuru, his wife Parvati wrote a letter offering to return the 14 alternative sites back to the Mysore Urban Development Authority. The offer was too little, too late.

Even in the face of a relentless onslaught of negative coverage for the last three months, Siddaramaiah’s advisors seem to have decided to take a wait-and-watch approach. They are banking on the PN Desai commission report clearing the CM of any charges and weathering it out based on legal advice. The commission headed by retired judge PN Desai was appointed in mid-July to probe the allegations. Other than saying the whole campaign by the opposition is politically motivated, Congress has not been in any way responding to the smear campaign or brought the decibel levels down. 

The fact is, not even Siddaramaiah could stay unaffected or distance himself entirely in the face of such poor perception brought about by opposition parties. He is the face of a resurgent Congress that came back to power, winning 133 seats out of 224 in the 2023 Assembly elections. It was on the promise of returning the focus to welfare programmes and away from the divisive politics of the BJP. In choosing him as CM, the Congress presented someone relatively free of corruption charges and a man considered the leader of a social movement with minorities, backward classes, and Dalits. He represents a party, but above it, an ideology.

When the BJP began its campaign in the beginning of July calling for his resignation, it was just a month after B Nagendra, a minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet, had to resign. The resignation came after a very vocal campaign by the BJP, when an official of a Scheduled Tribes corporation alleged irregular transfer of the corporation funds and blamed officials. The Congress party, which initially supported Nagendra, eventually had to let him go after sustained protests by the opposition alleging his involvement in the scam.

 From the time accusations started getting hurled at Siddaramaiah’s alleged connivance in receiving alternative sites that were far too pricey than the land that was acquired by the local corporation, there was a complacent attitude in Siddaramaiah’s team, who should not have treated it lightly. If anything, this letter offering to return the sites should have been made earlier. The appointment of a judicial commission to look into the allegations was expected to settle the matter. The reasoning was that political leaders across all parties were involved in a similar exchange of land, so they could exploit that if the issue escalated.

And so, Mysuru Congress district president Lakshmana was deputed to hold multiple press conferences releasing documents that purportedly showed no malfeasance on part of Siddaramaiah. He also spoke about leaders from other parties being involved in similar exchanges of land. The weak attempt to divert from the issue did not work in the face of strident protests by the BJP. Timely barbed comments from the Janata Dal (Secular) leaders, notably Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy hinting at his bete noire DK Shivakumar’s involvement in replacing Siddaramaiah as CM, just added fuel to the fire.

But in the age of ubiquitous social media, Siddaramaiah, with his old school thinking, was neither aware nor was made aware by his advisors of the gravity of the issue. His cavalier dismissal every time the issue was raised only seemed to reinforce his image as stubborn and adamant. The plethora of videos, memes, and cartoons circulating on social media is a testament to this. Siddaramaiah seems to be banking on his innocence. In truth, whether he was involved or not has nothing to do with the calls from the BJP and JD(S) for his resignation. Siddaramaiah does not have to resign. But he and his team needed a superior game plan to counter the opposition’s campaign to emerge the better out of this. 

Siddaramaiah has made it clear that he will contest elections again, and the Congress party has indicated that he will not be made the Chief Minister.  While there has been no open indication of power sharing with DK Shivakumar, if Siddaramaiah is indeed meant to hand over the mantle of power after two and a half years of being CM, then he has very little time. This is his chance to leave a powerful legacy—one of his choosing. It looked like he wanted to be known for his welfare measures, but given the developments of the last few weeks, Siddaramaiah’s term will be overshadowed by corruption charges.