When Karnataka’s Energy Minister DK Shivakumar emerged from his residence after a marathon 50-hour long income tax raid at 10 am on Saturday he appeared a confident man. The Congress leader who was under an undeclared house arrest for three days, locked up inside the house he projected an image that he was undisturbed by the raids against him.  About the raids, he said: “I don’t want to comment on what was seized from my house. I will talk about it once I get the panchanama documents from them (income tax officials)”

During the three days raid while the media houses had a field day with the majority of them speculating on the seizure from the raids. A few seemed however obsessed with the recoveries from the Congress leaders house. While a majority of them stuck to around the figure of 8-10 crore Rs seizures depending on the sources, a few media houses had a field day speculating highly.

While the Congress party in the state had rallied behind the man who will be heading the party’s campaign in coming 2018 polls with several protests and rallies across the state. DKS as he is popularly called has been recognized as their go-to crisis manager.

Not just the BJP, even people of the state eagerly await the Income Tax department (I-T) even while the social media especially WhatsApp was abuzz with several video clips and messages which people claimed were from the raid at DK’s house but later found to be untrue. What however has heightened the political interest and triggered a new debate within the ruling Congress party is the minister’s mother’s statement who hit out against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday accusing him of orchestrating the IT raids against her son. After the raids, D K Shivakumar chose to downplay her words and even apologized for the same to the chief minister. In his first media appearance after the raids had his priorities clear as he spoke to the media as announced that he will be joining the 42 Gujarat MLAs at Eagleton resort.

DK Shivakumar’s seeming confidence acted as a morale booster for Congress MLAs from Gujarat, who were facing criticism for being away from their flood affected constituencies.

True to his word, and to send a signal that he was unfazed he joined the Gujarat MLA’s at Vidhan Soudha. Shivakumar arrived while the MLAs were speaking to the media, following their interaction with the Governor. As his SUV drove in, the statement was cut short and the MLAs hurried to shake hands with their host.

Although DKS appears confident, the I-T department is yet to release the details of the raids conducted at over 60 locations across the country. While DKS office had circulated the panchnama of the raids at the Sadashivnagar residence cum office which showed that no cash had been seized from his residence. The question is with so much at stake in this extensive raid, It remains unclear if the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will step in.

Return of DK Shivakumar just days before the Gujarat MLAs are to return home for the Rajya Sabha elections is a morale boost for the Congress party as the party now gears up for ensuring the Rajya Sabha seat of Ahmed Patel