The power tussle in Karnataka Congress came out in the open on Wednesday when AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal was greeted with ‘DKS for CM’ slogans as he arrived at Mangaluru airport.
According to reports, the chief minister’s supporters hit back, raising ‘full term CM Siddaramaiah’ chants.
Mangaluru, Karnataka: Slogans in support of D. K. Shivakumar were raised at Mangalore International Airport as AICC General Secretary K. C. Venugopal arrived for a function pic.twitter.com/dtdABuW2Gx
— IANS (@ians_india) December 3, 2025
The development came a day after Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar put up a show of unity at a breakfast meeting on Tuesday.
After the meeting, the two leaders had asserted that they would abide by the high command’s decision and work together for the development of the state.
Venugopal arrived in Mangaluru to attend the centenary commemoration of the historic Narayana Guru-Mahatma Gandhi dialogue, an event organised by Mangaluru University. The chief minister, cabinet ministers and senior Congress leaders are attending the event.
Reports said that when Venugopal exited the airport, a group of party workers raised slogans expressing support for Shivakumar. Later, when the CM landed at the airport, his supporters raised slogans like 'Siddu, Siddu, Poornaavadhi Siddu' (full term CM Siddaramaiah).
At the heart of the ongoing leadership tussle in Karnataka is a purported understanding made in 2023 between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar—the two tall leaders of Karnataka Congress.
As per the deal, Shivakumar would be made the CM when the government reached the halfway mark. The party leadership, however, has never publicly acknowledged such an arrangement as being in existence.
On Tuesday, for the second time in a week, the two leaders met for breakfast at Shivakumar’s Sadashivanagar residence in Bengaluru.
Shivakumar’s brother D.K. Suresh and Kunigal MLA Ranganath were also present at the meeting, which followed a similar interaction on November 29 at the chief minister’s Cauvery residence.
