“I have CM in my name, I am a born CM and it is permanent. The CMs are temporary. They will be former one day, but I will always be a CM,” former Union minister CM Ibrahim has told this reporter many times. This is how he loves to describe himself. Chand Mahal Ibrahim or CM Ibrahim has been a fixture in Karnataka politics for over 45 years. The colourful, controversial leader who is known for quick wit, pun and repartee, is now threatening to quit the Congress.
Upset over not being made leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council or Upper House, Ibrahim has now fixed his eyes on his one-time friend and leader HD Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular). Describing Gowda as a “matured” leader, Ibrahim claims he will soon exit the Congress to enter the JD(S).
CM Ibrahim was born in Airani village in Karnataka’s Haveri district and brought up in the steel town of Bhadravathi in Shimoga district.
A practising Muslim, Ibrahim studied Vachanas (devotional poems) of the Lingayat faith in school and often extensively quotes them to make a point. He did his primary schooling in a Lingayat Mutt. “The secular, liberal atmosphere of the Lingayat Mutt has deeply influenced me. I am a practising Muslim, who firmly believes in Basava Tatva (the preaching of Basavanna, the 12th-century founder of Lingayat faith),” he proudly says.
Ibrahim and controversies are inseparable. In 1978, he first entered the Karnataka Assembly as an MLA from Shivajinagar in Bengaluru. He became one of the trusted followers of the then chief minister R Gundu Rao and was made a minister in the 1980s. The loquacious Ibrahim once proudly displayed a Rolex watch at a public function, claiming it was gifted to him by a friend in the Gulf. The opposition made a big hue and cry over it and Ibrahim had to tender his resignation to the Cabinet.
The alleged rape of a woman by one of his brothers in Bhadravathi made him unpopular and he could not return to the Assembly again.
After several run-ins with then Congress leaders S Bangarappa and M Veerappa Moily, Ibrahim defected to the Janata Dal led by HD Deve Gowda and Ramakrishna Hegde in 1994. After the party swept to power, decimating the Congress, the newly appointed CM Gowda made Ibrahim state president of the Janata Dal. Two years later, in 1996, he was made a Rajya Sabha member. In a miraculous development, Gowda became the Prime Minister and Ibrahim was appointed as the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting. It was his finest hour and Ibrahim created more controversies during his short stint at the Centre.
In 2010, Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata had alleged that a senior minister had demanded Rs 15 crore to let his company operate domestic flights in collaboration with Singapore Airlines in the 1990s. But, Tata had refused to name the minister and the media speculated that it was Ibrahim, who had also held the portfolio of Civil Aviation. Ibrahim had denied the charges, demanding Tata to name the minister.
“Ibrahim was instrumental in bringing the Gowda government down. His distasteful comments on the-then Congress president Sitaram Kesari led to a breakdown of the relationship between Gowda and Kesari. Gowda lost the premiership, but Ibrahim continued as a Cabinet minister in the IK Gujral government. That is Ibrahim for you,” said a former aide of Gowda.
During this period, one of his brothers was charged with an alleged rape in Bhadravathi and Ibrahim had to do a lot of contortions to save his coveted chair.
In late 2000, Ibrahim returned to the Congress with his old friend Siddaramaiah, who was expelled from the JD(S). In 2013, he unsuccessfully fought the Assembly election from Bhadravathi and lost miserably. Siddaramaiah made Ibrahim an MLC and also deputy chairman of the Karnataka Planning Board.
Ibrahim has been the Congress’s star campaigner since 2009 and created several controversies. “One of his most distasteful comments got me at least 50,000 extra votes in the 2014 parliamentary elections. He was so cheap and uncouth,” Shobha Karandlaje, now a Union Minister, had once told this reporter.
Even though Ibrahim claims and many genuinely believe that he has mastered the Vachanas, some of his critics feel that he is an overrated person and his knowledge of the Lingayat faith is just basic.
“He is a comedian, a joker. Not a serious leader,” said a senior leader of the Congress on condition of anonymity.
At 73, Ibrahim hopes to rock the Congress’s boat. Speaking to the media, he said, “The Congress has not respected my seniority. They will pay for it in the next Assembly elections. They will be pushed to third place.”
The Siddaramaiah faction in the Congress still hopes that miffed Ibrahim will stay back. Others suspect the hand of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party behind his revolt.
“The BJP knows that Muslims will vote for the Congress in the next Assembly elections. It is trying to split this. Hijab to Ibrahim, all are helping them,” said another Congress leader.
Ibrahim rubbishes these charges and maintains that he will definitely quit the Congress in a week.
Will he? Won’t he?
Irrespective of what he does, Ibrahim won’t be a CM. And he knows that well.
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