After having successfully poached senior Congress leaders from Assam, Haryana, Bihar and elsewhere, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee along with political strategist Prashant Kishor have trained their guns in the southern state of Karnataka. 

On a quick fire mission to replace the Congress as the national alternative to the BJP, the TMC leader has achieved substantial success as evidenced by a series of inductions of senior Congressmen such as Ashok Tanwar, Kirti Azad, Sushmita Deb, Abhijit Mukherjee or Luizinho Falerio. 

Kishor, who has been acting as Banerjee messenger, was in Bengaluru on Thursday with an offer to senior Congress leader MB Patil, who is considered to have influence among the politically dominant Lingayat community in the state. Kishor's meeting with Patil could not materialise, but the two are said to have had a telephonic conversation. The I-PAC founder convener, meanwhile, met approximately half a dozen state Congress MLAs that he had on his list. 

Kishor apparently wants to replicate the Meghalaya  model by inducting a substantial number of Karnataka Congress MLAs under the leadership of Patil. Recently, 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs in Meghalaya under the leadership of former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma announced their decision to join the TMC. 


Patil, along with DK Shivakumar, Satish Jarkiholi and Dr G Parmeshwara have been regarded as possible chief ministerial candidates, should former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah be asked to give up his claims by the party high command. It is to be seen whether Patil gets attracted by the TMC offer; or whether he exploits the situation to bargain with the Congress high command for better positioning within the state party. Patil has been harboring ambitions of replacing DK Shivakumar as the PCC chief in the run up to the 2023 assembly elections in Karnataka. 

What is indicative is that the TMC is preparing to contest the Karnataka elections also, after having decided to enter the political fray in Goa, Tripura,  Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh. After the exit of BS Yeddyurappa, a political vacuum has prevailed within the Lingayat community. In case Patil decides to hop over, he will evidently come as a big catch for the TMC.