DK Shivakumar’s Sleight Of ‘Hand’: Karnataka Congress Makeover RSS Style

Last Updated:August 02, 2025, 09:02 IST

It’s evident that Shivakumar has been methodically working towards the cadre-based strategy of the RSS-BJP

Shivakumar has consistently made it a point to showcase to the Congress high command that he can bring leaders and workers into the party’s fold, be it through Operation Hasta or other outreach moves. File pic/PTI

Even as DK Shivakumar continues to tussle for the chief ministership of Karnataka, his core strategy has always been about being an “organisation man". His focus has been to get Congress workers to operate as a single unit towards the victory of the party, and that has helped him gain a seat at the top table.

Now comes another factor. Having seen Siddaramaiah build his image and become chief minister not once but twice on the AHINDA push, Shivakumar is left to strategise how he can best gain maximum support and make it known to the Congress high command that he is the man for the top job, as CM of Karnataka.

He has begun to work towards consolidating himself as the top Vokkaliga leader—a community that is potentially influential in Karnataka, but one that has largely stayed with the Janata Dal (Secular). With former prime minister HD Deve Gowda as its patriarch, the JD(S) is considered the representative of a large section of the Vokkaliga community. Shivakumar is out to breach that very fortress and consolidate himself as one of the tallest Vokkaliga leaders in the state—brick by brick, karyakarta by karyakarta—just as BS Yediyurappa built himself up as the tallest Lingayat leader in Karnataka.

When DK Shivakumar formally took charge as the Karnataka Congress president in 2019, he told this reporter that the RSS-BJP’s cadre-based training model had given them a political advantage—and that his plan was to work with Congress party workers in a manner similar to how the RSS grooms its karyakartas.

Since he took over in 2019, Shivakumar has been a man on a mission. He has consistently made it a point to showcase to the Congress high command that he can bring leaders and workers into the party’s fold, be it through Operation Hasta or other outreach moves.

Calling himself an “organisational man", his recent call inviting JD(S) workers to join the Congress—while claiming the party will remain in power in Karnataka forever—was yet another instance of this organisational push.

For Shivakumar, timing and location always matter—and are always strategic. Recently, at the Congress government’s Sadhana Samavesha event in Maddur, organised to launch development works worth Rs 1,146 crore, he made an open call asking JD(S) workers not to waste their time in the regional party and instead join the Congress. He made this offer right in the backyard of his arch political rival and union minister HD Kumaraswamy. Still smarting from the Lok Sabha loss of Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh to BJP’s CN Manjunath—Kumaraswamy’s brother-in-law—the KPCC president is looking to reshape the political map and perhaps even reclaim his brother’s seat.

Shivakumar’s sharp statement—“The Congress flag will fly high in the future in Karnataka. It is high time that people cutting across party lines stand for Congress. What happened to PM Modi’s achhe din? What about Rs 15 lakh they promised? Ask HD Kumaraswamy and BJP. Congress is the only party that is for the welfare of farmers and society"—was a direct attack on Kumaraswamy and the Deve Gowda family.

A more recent example of Shivakumar’s Chanakya-style political work has been the election of Maddur MLA Kadaluru Uday Gowda. Uday is one such product of Shivakumar’s Operation Hasta—or political poaching.

Uday, from Mandya district, joined the Congress in March 2023—just ahead of the assembly polls. Shivakumar’s ability to iron out old differences and bring him in was critical, especially since Uday had once been accused of playing a key role in the downfall of the Congress-JD(S) alliance government in 2019, which led to the BJP’s BS Yediyurappa forming the government.

Shivakumar didn’t stop at onboarding Uday. The Congress gave him a ticket to contest from Maddur, and he won. Shivakumar then took the opportunity to praise him in Maddur for donating property worth Rs 2 crore for a Congress Bhavan. “My initial thought was to field Gurucharan, nephew of SM Krishna, from Maddur. But the survey report was in favour of Uday, and today he has won the seat for the Congress," the deputy CM said.

When Shivakumar was asked about Uday’s alleged involvement in Operation Lotus, he defended him: “He did whatever he did, as he was in the opposition."

From the beginning, Shivakumar has made it clear that his organisational strategy is borrowed from the RSS playbook. “The Congress, until now, has been a mass-based party. We should now look at converting it into a cadre-based one under my leadership in the state," he said.

He explained that the RSS and BJP’s cadre-based training had helped them gain political momentum across the country, and that the RSS’s strategy of identifying young minds, grooming cadres, and inducting them into the BJP has always yielded good results.

“I have designed my own model for Karnataka, and I have convinced senior leaders about how I plan to work it out. The Congress has its own base, strengths, and history, and with collective leadership and boosting the morale of the cadre, we will be able to achieve a lot," he told this reporter back in 2019. And now, it’s evident that Shivakumar has been methodically working towards this cadre-based strategy.

“One by one, party worker by party worker—we know all of them are disillusioned in the JD(S). We are giving them an out, giving them a political revival. If they join the Congress under DK Shi (as Shivakumar is fondly called by his supporters), they will be able to work for a national party that has gained much ground and appreciation among people for its welfare schemes," said a close associate of the deputy CM and KPCC chief.

In May this year, Shivakumar struck deep into the JD(S) heartland of Hassan—home turf of party patriarch HD Deve Gowda—by orchestrating the defection of 12 JD(S) and 4 BJP leaders to the Congress. The event was made into a grand show, with Shivakumar using the opportunity to send a loud political message. A senior leader from his home turf of Kanakapura put it simply: “Shivakumar wants to sweep the 2028 assembly polls. Nothing can stop him now. The only thing needed is voter support—and that, he already has."

Shivakumar, while addressing the gathering, said that he had made an offer to JD(S) workers and not legislators. “They (JDS MLAs) are taking care of their future, but they are not doing anything at the local level. How long do the party workers have to wait?" Shivakumar explained, justifying why he was inviting them into the Congress fold with open arms.

In 2023, Shivakumar extended this strategy to BJP workers in Channapatna—the constituency of then chief minister HD Kumaraswamy. He wrote a letter inviting BJP workers from the taluk to join the Congress, showing that his party was leaving nothing to chance in building ground-level support ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “The doors will always be open to all those BJP leaders and workers in Channapatna who believe in Congress’s ideologies," he said.

This was a direct attempt to counter Kumaraswamy in his stronghold. And it set the stage for Shivakumar’s next big move.

Just 24 hours before the nomination deadline for the Channapatna bypoll, five-time MLA CP Yogeshwar quit the BJP and joined the Congress. A former minister and BJP-nominated MLC, Yogeshwar was upset that the BJP had not given him a ticket. Soon after, he was spotted meeting Shivakumar at his residence in Sadashivanagar, Bengaluru.

Yogeshwar’s sudden switch caught both the BJP and JD(S) off guard. Shivakumar ensured he was fielded as the Congress candidate against Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil. Nikhil lost—his third electoral defeat—by a margin of 26,000 votes. A win that helped soothe Shivakumar’s nerves after his brother’s crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections from the Bangalore Rural seat—a constituency that also includes Shivakumar’s own Kanakapura assembly seat, which he has won undefeated six times.

Shivakumar has consistently executed what is now being called his surgical strikes on the BJP and JD(S). In September 2023, over 15 prominent leaders and former corporators from both parties joined the Congress in Bengaluru in his presence. The event—held at the Bharat Jodo Auditorium—saw the likes of former deputy mayor L Srinivas, Prasad Babu, and former taluk panchayat member Anjinappa being welcomed by Shivakumar himself.

This was the third major operation in Bengaluru, following earlier efforts in Yeshwantpur and RR Nagar. It was part of his larger plan— Operation Hasta—named after the Congress hand symbol.

Under Operation Hasta, the Congress aimed to rope in BJP leaders and deal a blow to the saffron party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Senior BJP leaders like ST Somashekar and MTB Nagaraj—both originally from the Congress—were reportedly on Shivakumar’s radar. While this hasn’t materialised fully yet, the groundwork remains in motion.

Somashekar had publicly called Shivakumar his guru, saying, “Whatever I have achieved politically was due to his blessings." His remarks embarrassed the BJP, already in disarray after its crushing defeat in the assembly elections.

Other discontented BJP leaders—like former ministers N Muniratna and MTB Nagaraj—too have spoken openly about their discomfort within the BJP after joining it, pointing to a growing opportunity for Shivakumar’s Congress to strike again.

Shivakumar isn’t just reshaping the Congress—he’s rebuilding it, brick by brick, karyakarta by karyakarta, in the image of the only model that has worked for the BJP: the cadre. Only this time, the hand is on the other side.

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