Former chief minister and ex-union minister DV Sadananda Gowda said BJP would back DK Shivakumar. Meanwhile, LoP in the Legislative Assembly R Ashoka said that Shivakumar was sending a "message" to Siddaramaiah and the Congress leadership.
Published Nov 27, 2025 | 6:18 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 27, 2025 | 6:18 PM
Gowda's comments come amid renewed speculation over a leadership change, as Congress government completed the first half of its tenure on 20 November. Credit: x.com/DKShivakumar, www.facebook.com/DVSBJP
Synopsis: Karnataka BJP is mocking Congress over CM change rumours with AI videos, but suffers self-goal as ex-CM DV Sadananda Gowda offers ”outside support to DK Shivakumar” if BJP high command orders. Amid Delhi visits by Congress MLAs and denials from Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar, Gowda’s remarks expose cracks in BJP’s attack on Congress “instability.”
Even as the Karnataka BJP continues to mock the ongoing buzz around leadership change in the Congress in the state, its own once-prominent leaders are issuing statements that are causing an embarrassment to the saffron party.
Former chief minister and BJP leader DV Sadananda Gowda on Wednesday, 26 November, extended an offer of outside support to DK Shivakumar for the CM’s post.
“If DK Shivakumar comes and gives us outside support, we will accept it. But union leaders should decide if DK Shivakumar will be CM. If our union leaders ask us to give support we will never go against high command’s words. If BJP union leaders ask Karnataka BJP to support DKS to form the government, we will,” Gowda told reporters.
His comments come amid renewed speculation over a leadership change, as Congress government completed the first half of its tenure on 20 November.
While both CM Siddaramaiah and DyCM Shivakumar have repeatedly denied any such move, a series of meetings between Congress MLAs and the party’s central leadership in Delhi has kept the rumours alive.
BJP, meanwhile, has been using the issue to sharpen its attack on the ruling party, with its leaders claiming that a “widening internal rift” within the Congress is causing political instability in Karnataka.
Over the past few weeks, Karnataka BJP has released a series of AI-generated videos on its X and Instagram handles, targeting Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and the ongoing leadership chatter.
On 19 November, the party posted an AI-generated video mocking Siddaramaiah, depicting him answering questions during a fake Facebook Live session. The clip showed AI-created comments from users with names like Jamal, Ajmal, Rafiq and Faiz, urging him to continue as CM for five years.
The video then portrayed him getting irritated when a user named “Shivashankar Kanakapura” commented, “For how long will you be the CM? Resign and leave.”
On Tuesday, the party’s X handle shared another AI video showing Shivakumar trying to order the “CM chair” online, only for it to appear as “out of stock”. It was captioned: “DK Shivakumar right now.”
‘ @DKShivakumar right now! #NovemberKranthi#CongressFailsKarnataka#SidduVsDKS #KarnatakaMusicalChairs pic.twitter.com/mnLWfExZDu
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) November 25, 2025
Earlier this month, the party took a swipe at Congress over the CM’s post, by sharing a video showing four top Congress leaders – Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar, Home Minister G Parameshwara, and Public Works Department Minister Satish Jarkiholi – in a game of musical chair for the post.
However, the party’s attempts to project disunity in the Congress appear to have been undercut by its own senior leader and former MP, Gowda, who stated that the party would support Shivakumar to form the government if BJP high command directed them to do so.
To recall, Shivakumar, during an event in October, reaffirmed his loyalty to the Congress, stating that he preferred to go to jail instead of taking up the Deputy CM’s post offered by the central BJP to destabilise the JDS-Congress coalition government in the previous term in 2019.
“I told (BJP leader on call) — I prefer jail to becoming a Deputy Chief Minister. I could have become (Deputy CM) then. Don’t know what would have happened in politics. But, I stood by my party, its workers, ideology, the path in which I grew, and secular principle,” he said, while speaking at the launch of a book on him — “A Symbol of Loyalty DK Shivakumar “– written by K M Raghu.
Reacting to his statement, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly R Ashoka said that Shivakumar was sending a “message” to Siddaramaiah and the Congress leadership.
“DK Shivakumar doesn’t do anything without a meaning. He is sending a message to Siddaramaiah and Congress leadership that he has other choices if power is not given to him. He is also sending a message about his loyalty to Congress,” he said.
(Edited by Amit Vasudev)
