Did ruling Congress surrender to AICC diktat to cater to party’s interests in Kerala?

By taking swift action to rehabilitate families, largely Muslims, after the demolition of their illegally built houses on government land in Kogilu Layout near Yelahanka in Bengaluru, the ruling Congress in Karnataka appears to have yielded to the “minority vote bank politics” and diktat of the AICC.

The issue took national and international attention after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hit out at the Congress government’s demolition drive, terming it as “bulldozer raj” and apparently comparing it to the alleged “anti-minority” drive implemented by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.

Political observers view AICC general secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal’s post on X as a directive to the Congress dispensation in the State to take hurried action to safeguard the “interest of minorities”. It is also seen as “undermining” the authority of the elected government headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Earlier too, the Congress high command had publicly nudged the State government on several occasions, including directing the Chief Minister to reject the Social and Educational Survey (caste census) conducted in 2015.

Apparently, the Congress-led State government appears to be serving the party’s interests in Kerala, which is expected to vote for the Assembly in March/April 2026. Earlier in February 2024, the State government paid compensation of ₹15 lakh to the family of a person from Wayanad in Kerala, who died after being attacked by an elephant from Karnataka. In August 2024, the government announced that it would construct 100 houses for victims of a landslide in Wayanad; the constituency was then represented by Rahul Gandhi and now by Priyanka Gandhi. The Opposition BJP questioned the rationale behind both decisions while accusing the government of doing it at the behest of the Gandhi family.

The real issue for the larger public is why the Congress party’s central leaders remained silent when a large number of houses constructed on Raja Kaluve or government lands in Bengaluru were demolished in the past, and houses were not given to them? Why had the party high command not expressed similar sensitivity for the rehabilitation of thousands of families who had lost houses in monsoon floods in different parts of Karnataka?

The Opposition BJP asked why the State governments in Kerala and Karnataka, and the Congress high command, did not raise the same concern when houses of Kannadigas were demolished at Baina beach in the South Goa district about a decade ago, when Mr. Siddaramaiah was heading the Congress government in the State.

Though the government claimed that it would provide houses to families on humanitarian grounds, the public perception was that the ruling dispensation had taken a quick decision to keep the minority community’s vote bank intact with the Congress, both in Karnataka and Kerala.