Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar tussle overKarnatakatop job intensifies

Kumara Chandrashekaranatha Swami, leader of the Vishwa VokkaligaraMahasamsthana Mutt, has demanded that DK Shivakumar be given a shot at being chief minister, since Siddaramaiah is already in his second stint in the top job. To offset the Swami’s demand, now loyalists of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, from the Congress and the backward-minority communities that have been his mainstay, plan to change his birthday celebrations into a show of power and strength amid a leadership tussle in the party. Siddaramaiah’s loyalists, many of them state ministers, have decided to hold his 77th birthday bash at a grand scale in Hubballi on August 12 to convey a strong message that they would not tolerate any attempt to replace him as the chief minister.