Karnataka Power Struggle: Siddaramiah Demands Coordination Committee To Check State Chief

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]We report from the Vidhan Sabha here and getting you all the action from Bengaluru. Remember, there's a whole lot of meetings happening right now in Delhi as well. And that's because Siddaramaiah has been meeting with the high command.

[00:00:11]We have now got an exclusive scoop here on India Today on exactly [music] what are the demands being put forth by Siddaramaiah. He's not backing down.

[00:00:18]We've been telling you from this morning about portfolios, cabinet berths, all of that that he's been pushing for. Guess what? It doesn't stop there. He's now asked for a coordination committee to head a coordination committee. The obvious question that comes up is why do [music] you need a coordination committee in a government that's not formed over two allies [music] coming together? It's not a coalition government to need a coordination committee. But let's get you those details. Joining me on this very, very windy day in Bengaluru, we've got Nagarjun Dwarakanath. The weather changes very quickly here, as does the politics.

[00:00:49]>> The political weather and the actual weather has changed. [music] Uh it's it's almost the monsoon time here. We have got darker clouds, but what's important is the big, big development, Akshita. See, the former Chief Minister of the caretaker CM, Siddaramaiah, has asked for a coordination committee. That's [music] the pitch he's made before the high command, and it's quite bizarre and shocking, also. The previous coordination committee was in 2018 in a coalition government between the Congress and the JDS.

[00:01:15]>> It makes sense.

[00:01:16]>> Which yes, absolutely.

[00:01:17]>> Here, I mean >> With 140 odd MLAs, a single party [music] majority, how do you have a coordination committee? And I I'm sure the high command is rejecting this. For a fact, when I spoke to my sources, they said high command is surprised as well.

[00:01:30]How can this pitch come through uh with the stature of a man of Siddaramaiah?

[00:01:33]So, it's going to be rejected, but however, this was a move to checkmate D.K. Shivakumar. They wanted to ensure that D.K. won't have a complete uh free play of power. And high command, as we said, are still contemplating to have deputy Chief Ministers or not. If we don't have deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah feels that D.K. Shivakumar has a complete free path to the government to >> the Chief Minister.

[00:01:56]>> Absolutely. And that's the reason this coordination committee idea becomes interesting. So, what does coordination committee do? It's a bridge between uh the government and the party with the chairman of the coordination committee.

[00:02:06]That's another power center of the chief minister. So, if an MLA if I'm the MLA if I have grievances with the CM, I can run to the coordination committee saying CM is not allocating constituency funds and the coordination committee will become like a supreme committee where they can talk to the high command directly, solve grievances, summon people, summon MLAs. can't be that and it it's become official. It becomes official body or the committee where the party leadership will have to now run to the coordination committee. So, there'll be three power centers, chief minister, party president, and the coordination committee. And now the high command is all set to reject [music] this idea and telling Siddaramaiah, "Mr. Siddaramaiah, we can accommodate only this much. I think this is a bit too much."

[00:02:45]>> Okay, so let's be very clear from what Naga tells [music] us. This is an idea floated by Siddaramaiah. This is what he wants. The high command at this point hasn't accepted [music] it at all for obvious reasons because like he said it creates three power centers. You can only imagine the mess that that makes.

[00:02:58]Let [music] me bring in Sagar. Sagar, come over here and take us through what happened the last time we saw this kind of a coordination committee. That time it was legit because you had Congress and JDS together forming of course the [music] government didn't last. Uh so, the coordination committee clearly failed there. What happened then? And you know, how could there be any reasoning that justifies a coordination committee today?

[00:03:18]>> It was a power center.

[00:03:19]Power center of Siddaramaiah.

[00:03:20]Siddaramaiah had an office, he had a cabinet rank in uh in the government and he had a huge office inside Vidhana Soudha. So, he was a person where he used to address the issues of the Congress MLAs. If nothing is working because chief minister yes, chief chief minister was H.D. Kumaraswamy and if you are not giving money, you are not giving taking care of the MLAs of Congress, they will go ahead and address to Siddaramaiah.

[00:03:42]Siddaramaiah is a person who will escalate with the high command and high command in return talk to H.D.

[00:03:47]Kumaraswamy. So, this was a network. Now If have a KPCC president who can do that, and you also have a general secretary of Congress who is in charge of Congress who can do that, why do you require one more power center?

[00:03:59]Act- actually as as Nagarjun was telling, actually to control uh DK Shivakumar, and definitely I think uh Congress which knows that probably because of that particular power center, because of that coordination committee headed by chairman Siddaramaiah, the alliance government allegedly collapsed according to few Congress leader.

[00:04:18]>> Mhm.

[00:04:18]>> And and I don't think so they're going to uh fall in that particular trap this time when you have a brutal majority in Karnataka. And and you have a strong leader, strong chief minister. If at all if it's DK Shivakumar as a chief minister, he's a strong chief minister who have already bulldozed many leaders, who has taken care of opposition.

[00:04:36]Definitely, I don't think so you require [music] one as of now in the state of Karnataka.