Siddaramaiah's announcement causes flutters in congress
Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he will not fight electoral elections anymore. He had said the same when he was the Chief Minister as well. At a time when Siddaramaiah seemed inevitable to Congress demand for dalit Chief Minister was created.
The demand was created to unseat Siddaramaiah and not to make a dalit Chief Minister of the state.
Native Congress when fired so long as Siddaramaiah was in the party they would never get a chance to become the chief minister. To dissuade the fears of native congressmen, siddaramaiah had then told he would not fight elections anymore.
With this, the Parmeshwar gang was happy that the he can become a chief minister next time.
Owing to his duty towards people he was forced to fight Vidhan Sabha elections last time.
If Congress had achieved majority, Siddaramaiah's becoming of the CM second time over was most certain. Hence in order to avoid working under him again, native Congressis ensured he lost the Chamundeshwari seat. More than his opponent's pluses, anti-Siddaramaiah gang worked to make sure he lost. However, he won with a small margin in Badami, his second seat. If he had lost that, Siddaramaiah would have been a closed chapter in Congress.
This time again, Siddaramaiah has said he won't contest elections anymore. This time the announcement has come after considering changing political scenario and realities. This is a message to most leaders in his party and also to his opponents. He has made his role clear in the coming days in a rather delicate manner. He still nurses some anger about leaders who ensured his failure in Congress during last polls.
He has even made his inevitability clear when his party and JDS came together to form coalition government.
By now, other leaders also know that Siddaramaiah's presence is inevitable to Congress. Looks like former CM Siddaramaiah has decided to quit full time politics after teaching a good lesson to people who worked to defeat him. So his announcement of not contesting elections also means he'd stay away from the fighting grounds for a while. He now wants to play the king maker. So DKS gang can rely on him without any hesitation now. Because now Siddaramaiah is in a mindset that if he doesn't become the CM, that's fine. But he will not let someone else, especially his opponent to become one.
He did not say he'd stay out of politics either. DKS recently said Cong lost because the party supported the Lingayat issue in a rather irresponsible manner. In a way, this statement has Siddaramaiah as target. This statement makes the Lingayat issue some kind of a political strategy. Congress had lost miserably many a times even when the party never went close to the Lingayat issue. Internal conflicts caused the failure of Congress this time over. Hindutva wave also caused enough damage. BJP spent money like water in the elections rendering Congress helpless. Leaders like D.K. Shivakumar who hardly know anything about Lingayat dharma or about Basavanna, cause more damage to Congress.
The party has already earned the wrath of Veerashaivas on Lingayat issue. Most of the Veerashaivas are followers of RSS or BJP. Now even Lingayats will probably look at Congress with suspicion over this. Lingayat leaders now understand that their fight has to be a separate one and this has to be fought outside the citadel of Congress. Siddaramaiah knows the history of this land.
Is political journey is free from money, muscle power and rowdyism. His space is secure in the history of Karnataka respective of his victory or loss.
He can give fresh lease of life to value based politics. Hence his decision to not contest electoral elections must give him more free space to work in the Congress.
He must now concentrate on creating new generation of leaders for the state. This would help both the party and the state as well. Congress high command must focus on using his experience and statesmanship for its growth and the future of the party in the state.
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Exclusion of Rinku Singh was the toughest call, he has done nothing wrong: Ajit Agarkar
Mumbai, May 2: Chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar on Thursday described the omission of Rinku Singh from India's T20 World Cup squad as the "toughest" call, saying the in-from swashbuckler has "done nothing wrong" and it all came down to combinations.
Rinku, Kolkata Knight Riders' big-hitting finisher from Aligarh, could not find a place in the 15-member squad as the think-tank preferred Chennai Super Kings' Shivam Dube over him.
The exclusion of Rinku, who has scored 356 runs at an average of 89 and strike rate of 176.24 in T20Is for India, became a major talking point since the Indian team's announcement two days ago and has caused a massive furore on social media.
"It (not picking Rinku) is probably the toughest thing we have had to discuss. He has done nothing wrong, not even Shubman Gill for that matter. It is not his fault that he missed out. It's about combinations," Agarkar said during a press conference here.
"A couple of wrist spinners were included to give Rohit (Sharma) more options. There are two keepers, we needed an extra bowler. It's just unfortunate. He's in the reserves, so that tells you how close he came into being in the 15. But at the end of the day, you can only pick 15 players in the squad," Agarkar added.
Rinku, who is not having a great IPL season as he is not getting to face enough balls, though made it to the list of reserves.
Rinku had been fast-tracked into the Indian T20I team after a fantastic run in the IPL last year but this season, he has managed just 123 runs in nine matches with a strike rate of 150.00, whereas Gill, captaining Gujarat Titans this time, has aggregated 320 runs from 10 matches at a strike rate of 140.97.
The left-handed Yashasvi Jaiswal has been preferred over Gill.
Meanwhile Abhishek Nayar, the head of KKR Academy and assistant coach of the franchise, did not feel Rinku was out of form and whatever runs he has scored this IPL season for KKR have been crucial for the team.
Nayar played a key role in shaping Rinku's career, especially when the batter was suffering from ACL (anterior cruciate ligament injury), and the former Mumbai cricketer also worked on his hitting skills.
"I would not agree (that it is about) IPL form. I think he has not played enough balls barring one-odd game wherein he has not got runs. He has got runs in every game which have been critical runs for us. The form has never been in question," Nayar backed his ward.
"When you look at any cricketer in world cricket or even in T20 cricket, sometimes the role you play doesn't justify what numbers you have at the end of the day.
"Just in terms of the role he plays for us and for any team, which is a finisher's role, you tend to play 8-10 balls and you look at how well he does in 8-10 balls and not how many runs he scored."
Over the last few years, Nayar has established himself as a prominent coach in domestic and franchise cricket.
"If you go back and look at his stats and his strike rate in comparison to the balls he has played, I think you will get your answer right there. It's not a form problem at all," Nayar said of Rinku.
Later on, after his press conference, India captain Rohit joined the Mumbai Indians squad for their pre-match training ahead of the clash against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Rohit was involved in a group discussion which included Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat and even Gautam Gambhir when he spotted Rinku coming towards him.
Rohit moved away from the group and spoke with Rinku for a while.
