December is when government officials and their departments at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru pack up for a two-week sojourn in the northern city of Belagavi, 500-odd km away. There, a replica of Karnataka’s stately secretariat—the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha—hosts the winter session of the state legislature. On December 6, late into the final Friday evening before this shift of venue, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was occupied with meetings at his residence in Bengaluru as he prepared to face the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Opposition in the House. The day before, he flexed his political muscles with a massive rally in Hassan, the stronghold of the Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S). Essentially, Karnataka’s ruling Congress is cashing in on the momentum gained from its clean sweep of the recent assembly bypolls. For Siddaramaiah, this victory couldn’t have come at a better time.
