Endgame in Karnataka

Officially, the Congress leadership has adopted a wait-and-watch policy as the political crisis engulfs Karnataka and threatens to dislodge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. But privately, many leaders have drawn up their plans of action on the assumption that the government there will fall and the party’s Karnataka leadership wants to take the lead in forming the next government. Siddaramaiah, the current leader of opposition in the Assembly, is the party’s first choice for chief minister. H D Kumaraswamy, son of Deve Gowda and widely regarded as the main force in orchestrating the current crisis, may be rewarded with a central government berth.