Downplaying intense speculation at Bengaluru airport, Shivakumar told reporters his trip is only to attend a bureaucrat-friend’s child’s wedding and to finalise lodging for nearly 10,000 Congress workers heading to a mega rally on December 14. He claimed he must personally authorise hotel bookings and train-travel arrangements to ensure party leaders and cadres have a comfortable stay in the capital. Yet the sudden journey comes barely 48 hours before Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge are slated to hold a decisive meeting on the lingering power-sharing crisis.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah responded with biting sarcasm: “Let him go to Delhi. Who stopped him? I will go only if I am summoned.” The remark underscored the frostiness between the two leaders, who held two inconclusive breakfast meetings in four days in a bid to resolve the standoff. Siddaramaiah enjoys the backing of around 110 Congress MLAs and insists any mid-term change would derail governance and ongoing guarantee schemes.

Shivakumar’s camp continues to invoke the alleged 2023 pact under which he reportedly stepped aside for Siddaramaiah on the promise of a rotational chief ministership after two-and-a-half years. With that deadline approaching, frustration is boiling over among Vokkaliga leaders and Shivakumar loyalists who feel the high command has repeatedly delayed justice. The Congress central leadership, wary of an open revolt in its only major southern bastion, has finally scheduled back-to-back meetings on December 8 to break the impasse.

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Party sources confirm Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge, and KC Venugopal will jointly take the final call on whether Siddaramaiah continues for the full term or honour the rotation formula. Both factions have publicly vowed to accept whatever decision the Gandhis and Kharge announce, though private threats of rebellion still loom large. As Shivakumar lands in Delhi insisting it’s “just a wedding,” Karnataka’s political circles are convinced the real ceremony about to unfold is the coronation—or dethroning—of the state’s next Chief Minister.

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