# Video Row: Kumaraswamy, Himanta attack Congress over Shivakumar collar pull

2026-10-13T11:07:10+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk

Corroboration: 2 independent outlets

Union minister HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday, 13 October, said the Congress party will eventually push Karnataka chief minister DK Shivakumar out of his post, after a video showed Rahul Gandhi pulling Shivakumar by the collar during an opposition march in Delhi. 'It is just the beginning,' Kumaraswamy told media, adding that 'the day is not far when even his chair will be pulled away.' He called the incident part of an 'extremely bad political culture' in Karnataka. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted the same video on X, calling it 'public humiliation' and recalling his own 2015 exit from Congress over a similar tussle with Rahul Gandhi. Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya said the act was 'an insult to the dignity of 7 crore Kannadigas'. The march on Monday, 12 October, was led by opposition parties against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over electoral roll revision. Congress has not commented on the video.

## Indian Opinion Analysis

Times of India leads with HD Kumaraswamy's claim that Congress will push DK Shivakumar out as chief minister, using the collar-pulling incident to launch a wider attack on the party's political culture in Karnataka. India Today centres the same video but frames it through Himanta Biswa Sarma's criticism of Rahul Gandhi, emphasising public humiliation and the Assam CM's own 2015 exit from Congress. The two outlets agree on the video's content but differ on the messenger and the intended target: Kumaraswamy trains his fire on Shivakumar's standing, while Himanta turns the episode into a broader indictment of Rahul Gandhi's conduct. Neither outlet provides a comment from Congress or Shivakumar on the video.

## Coverage

Coverage: 2 sources, 2 government-critical
- timesofindia.indiatimes.com (government critical) <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/congress-will-push-him-out-as-cm-kumaraswamy-after-dks-being-pushed-at-delhi-march/articleshow/134913020.cms>
  Leads with Kumaraswamy's warning Shivakumar will be pushed out, frames incident as part of 'bad political culture'
- indiatoday.in (government critical) <https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/himanta-biswa-sarma-rahul-gandhi-karnataka-cm-dk-shivakumar-anti-cec-protest-video-criticism-delhi-itspc-3016277-2026-10-13?utm_source=rss>
  Centres Himanta's attack on Rahul Gandhi for 'public humiliation', draws parallel to his 2015 exit from Congress

This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry.

Tags: Congress, DK Shivakumar, HD Kumaraswamy, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi
Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/video-row-kumaraswamy-himanta-attack-congress-over-shivakumar-collar-pull/
License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources.
Cite: https://indianopinion.org/video-row-kumaraswamy-himanta-attack-congress-over-shivakumar-collar-pull/#story-in-brief

How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/
