Siddaramaiah unlikely to rock boat: Aides

Bengaluru: While the BJP and his rivals within the Congress allege that former CM Siddaramaiah could prove a stumbling block in the smooth functioning of the coalition government, he is unlikely to rock the boat, say sources close to him. “He may make some political moves in future, which he is not opening up about, but his present frame of mind does not suggest that he will rock the boat, especially the one he is sitting in,” sources add.

Although he has been elected Congress Legislature Party leader and chairman of the coordination committee, most of Mr Siddaramaiah's followers are keen on him becoming KPCC president. But he has reportedly brushed aside such pressures and advised his followers to identify more with the party than just with him. 

Despite his stand, most of the apprehensions about his future course of action are based on Mr Siddaramaiah's bitter decade long battle with the Deve Gowda family and the treatment meted out to the ‘Gi Le Bi’ (Gowda, Lingayat and Brahmin) group during his administration. “He realised that his AHINDA movement and the way it was handled by people in the administration had created deep animosity among the upper class against him, including the Lingayats and Brahims, who constitute a large section of the population in his home district of Mysuru. Since then he started worrying that his son, Dr Yathindra, would  become a victim of this animosity and took the decision to field him from Varuna , risking his own political career in the process," say sources.