Karnataka has been known for voting out the party in power ever since 1989 when the Janata Party government led by SR Bommai paved way for the Veerendra Patil led Indian National Congress party. Then the Congress party bagged 178 seats in a house of 224 which is unparallel in the political history of the state. The strength of the remaining parties was: BJP-04,Janata Dal-24,Janata Party(JP)-02.

Thanks to the ill health of Veerendra Patil in the form of paralysis and his subsequent dismissal pronouncement by the then Congress president Rajiv Gandhi at the Bengaluru airport the five years term saw two more chief ministers in the form of S Bangarappa and M Veerappa Moily. But the unceremonious removal of the Lingayat strong man made the Congress party pay very heavily in the elections during 1994.

The Janata Dal government came into being with HD Devegowda as the chief minister and it was under his captaincy that the party bagged 16 Lok Sabha seats in the subsequent elections. HD Devegowda also rose to become the Prime Minister. He was succeeded by JH Patel as chief minister and Siddaramaiah as Deputy CM. The strength of different parties was: Janata Dal-115,BJP-40,INC-34 and others-35.

1999 general elections ensured the rout of Janata Dal government succeeded by SM Krishna led Congress party. But much before his tenure could complete SMK recommended dissolution of Assembly and went to pre mature polls just like Atal Bihari Vajpayee did at the centre during 2004.

SM Krishna’s overconfidence boomeranged and a hung Assembly came into being with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as the single largest party with 79 seats while the remaining parties lagged behind: INC-65, JDS-58, JDU-05 and Others-17. Yet the number one position didn’t make any sense to the saffron party as the Congress formed an alliance government with the support of Janata Dal Secular. Then N Dharamsingh became the CM while Siddaramaiah became the DCM for the second time.

In less than one and odd years N Dharamsingh government was toppled by HD Kumarswamy to install a JDS-BJP partnership government under an understanding of sharing power for 20 months each.

However after enjoying power for 20 months HD Devegowda who had maintained a religious silence till the end of his son’s regime claimed of consuming poison if at all his son handed the reins to BS Yeddyurappa. So though BS Yeddyurappa took the oath of office as chief minister had to put papers within a week as Janata Dal Secular failed to extend its support.

As a result of such situation elections were held in 2008 which saw the surge of BJP by winning 110 seats but still falling short of simple majority. INC managed to wrest 80 seats while the JDS had to be content with a mere 28 seats while Others constituted 06. BS Yeddyurappa managed to pull the strings with the help of some Independent legislators. It was also the beginning of ‘Operation Lotus’ under which MLAs of other parties were made to resign and re contest elections on a BJP ticket.

Though the party retained power frequent rumblings within made it stumble every now and then.BS Yeddyurappa had to quit and underwent prison life on allegations of denotification. He was succeeded first by DV Sadanandagowda and Jagadish Shettar later.

In the meanwhile BS Yeddyurappa floated his own Karnataka Janata Party(KJP) and B Sriramulu came out with his Badavara Shramikara Raitara Congress Party(BSRP).Both of them ensured humiliating defeat for their parent party by bagging six seats with 10 percent vote share and four seats with 4 percent of votes respectively. In this way Siddaramaiah led Congress party romped to power in 2013 with 122 seats.JDS and BJP got 40 seats each.

In a way all these results have one thing in common: Not even once the party in power has been returned and whichever party happened to assume office was just by default. It also goes without saying that parties in power have lost the seat of power due to anti incumbency in a big way.

Now it is 2018 and the factors to make or mar the poll prospects of all the three rival parties have changed a lot. BS Yeddyurappa and B Sriramulu are back in the party with Gali Janardhan Reddy pumping in funds from behind. After enough of public diatribe both BS Yeddyurappa and KS Eshwarappa, leader of opposition in the legislative council give a united portrayal only on the stage. But insiders confide that all’s not well still with them!

In a way BJP looks like having compromised in projecting a tainted figure as its chief ministerial candidate. But what better alternative did it have? The HN Ananth Kumar, BL Santosh and Pralhad Joshi types have been nursing hopes of becoming CMs’ today or tomorrow but the party is in no position to afford them as CM candidates as their quality of mass leadership and acceptance is also well known to the party cadres.

There are many leaders in the party who still confide that it was a wrong choice on the part of leadership and the decision will give wrong message to the masses. But KS Eshwarappa is quite vocal on the matter: Who else is the mass leader in BJP other than BS Yeddyurappa. He’s not just a Lingayat leader but also a mass leader and in whom can you find a comparison in the state?

Siddaramaiah as leader of the opposition in the previous Assembly had undertook a padyatra from Bengaluru to Ballari under the guise of leading a movement against looting of mineral wealth. He had all along the route attacked the Reddy brothers and had called for stalling the mining operations.

But very recently he proved that he is no better while in power. He admitted Anandsingh,BJP Vijayanagar MLA and B Nagendra,Kudligi Independent MLA into the Congress fold and also rewarded them the party ticket to contest elections. In fact both these legislators were arrested by the CBI on charges of mining export scam.

As opposition leader Siddaramaiah smelt everything fishy in mining business but when the occasion came to act against such activities he not just refrained from doing so but did opposite to what he had been propagating till now.

Likewise BJP also goofed up in its stance over mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy taking part in the party’s campaign. First Amith Shah,BJP national president told categorically: The party has no connections whatsoever with Reddy.

On the other hand P Muralidhar Rao, BJP state in charge challenged: The party is very clear on keeping Reddy at safe distance. In case anyone finds him on the party’s campaign stage just whatsup me the photo and leave me what action to take.

But in quite contrast to these declared stances BS Yeddyurappa claimed: With the entry of Janardhan Reddy the party has got the strength equivalent to ten elephants. We will take his help to win in at least 10-15 seats!

In a way mining scam and its baron who had gone to the extent of toppling the BS Yeddyurappa government never became an issue to debate for the BJP nor the Congress as both of them had similar black sheep accompanying them.

Siddaramaiah led government had constituted a joint legislature committee to probe into the affairs of the dubious NICE company owned by Ashok Kheny,Bidar South MLA. The TB Jayachandra committee had even recommended initiating harsh measures for violating the norms in developing road infrastructure.

But Siddaramaiah much against the opposition of his own party legislators and leaders admitted the tainted politician to the party. He is now the party candidate in the same constituency much against the disenchantment of Mallikarjun Kharge who had also expressed his resentment over the move.

The move of Siddaramaiah to play the Veerashiva-Lingayat card just before the elections is perceived in the political circles as a very calculative move assuring of positive benefit to the party.

It may be recalled here that the state government constituted a committee to go into the demand of according separate minority religion status to the Veerashiva-Lingayat community construed to be the bastion of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Following the recommendation of the committee the state government forwarded the proposal to the centre favoring separate minority religion tag to the Veerashiva-Lingayats. But by then the desired effect of dividing the community was achieved. If the group led by pontiffs of various Panchapeetha Mutts were aghast on usage of the term Lingayat the opponent group had gone much ahead in batting for the state government.

This controversy is being felt to have a significant impact on the outcome of polls. Although there are conflicting claims on the probable effect against the BJP as Amith Shah has declared of not honoring the proposal. But the swing towards the ruling Congress cannot be underplayed though there are diverse opinions on the extent of benefit.

Mahadayi river water sharing has literally become a perennial problem to the people of Dharwad and Gadag districts and they have been agitating on a daily basis since more than three years. The issue was dubbed to boomerang the BJP for its failure of finding a solution in spite of having the same party government in Goa and the Centre. But all such apprehensions were thrown to the wind when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed his maiden public meeting in Gadag: We are committed in ushering justice to the peasants by ensuring Mahadayi river to quench the thirst of water parched areas.

Amith Shah, BJP national president was more specific at his public rally in Gadag: Mahadayi river water will flow in this region within six months of a BJP government taking over in the state.

By such announcements Mahadayi river water sharing dispute which had been haunting the BJP has suddenly turned the tables in favor.

Lawlessness, attacks on innocent law abiding citizens more so on children, women and senior citizens, Bengaluru city turning up into a garbage city, politicians and their kith and kin taking law into their own hands to harass common people, steel bridge project scam and many other issues which were in the limelight throughout the five years didn’t appear to make much sense to the polls.

Hindusthan Samachar/Manohar Yadavatti

Congress president Rahul Gandhi today said there was “no contest” between his party’s government in Karnataka and the previous BJP regime in the southern state as regards corruption, adding that the saffron party’s rule “wins hands down”.

Gandhi took to Twitter to draw a comparison between the Congress government in Karnataka and the previous BJP regime (2008-13) in the state, with the help of figures to show that his party’s rule was better on all counts.

“In Karnataka, when it comes to corruption, it’s a “No Contest” as this graphic shows. The BJP wins hands down! (sic),” he tweeted, along with two sets of graphics.

The graphics claimed that the Congress was the “top job creator” in the country, the Anna Bhagya scheme of the party’s government in Karnataka was feeding four crore people, the Ramthal Marol, Asia’s largest drip irrigation project, and the world’s largest solar power park were built by the party and that it had also waived the loans of 22 lakh farmers, amounting to Rs 8,165 crore, in the southern state.

On the other hand, the graphics pointed out that during the BJP rule in Karnataka, chief minister BS Yeddyurappa was jailed in connection with the denotification scam, India’s “largest political poaching scandal” — “Operation Kamala” — was unearthed during the saffron party’s rule, it had pioneered “cashless corruption” by taking bribes in cheques, former state minister Krishnaiah Setty was jailed in a land grab case, while the Reddy brothers were jailed in a Rs 35,000-crore mining scam.

“Who works better? Congress government of 2013-18 or BJP government of 2008-13. Numbers speak for themselves. Choose right. Vote Congress,” the graphics said.

The second set of graphics claimed that while the Congress government, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, had created 53 lakh jobs in Karnataka, only 26.64 lakh jobs were created during the BJP regime.

It also claimed that while the Congress had given loans worth Rs 12,000 crore to farmers and completed 42.3 kms of “Namma Metro”, the BJP had sanctioned farm loans worth Rs 6,560 crore and completed only 6.7 kms of the metro works.

It also claimed that the Congress had built 15.5 lakh houses as against the 11.3 lakh during the BJP regime and the budget outlay of the current government was Rs 2,09,181 crore in 2018, while in 2013, it was Rs 1,17,005 crore under the BJP.

It also claimed that the Congress’s achievements were more than those of the BJP as regards creation of MBBS seats, road construction, grant of scholarships to OBCs and building toilets.

The 224-member Karnataka Assembly goes to the polls on May 12 and the results will be declared on May 15.

The Congress is seeking to retain power in the southern state, while the BJP’s aim is to unseat the Congress in Karnataka.

PTI

Prime Minister will address the SC, ST, OBC and Slum Morcha Karyakartas of BJP’s Karnataka unit through the Narendra Modi App at 9 this morning (Thursday, May 10).

Modi had recently interacted with the party’s Yuva Morcha, Kisan Morcha and Mahila Morcha Karyakartas of the state through the app.

He had also interacted with the party’s candidates for Karnataka Assembly elections through Narendra Modi App.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

Campaigning for Assembly elections in Karnataka will end this evening (Thursday, May 10).

The state will go to polls on Saturday to elect a new assembly. Out of 224 constituencies, voting will take place for 223 seats.

Polling in Jayanagar assembly constituency has been countermanded following the death of BJP candidate BN Vijay Kumar.

Counting of votes will be taken up on the 15th of this month. A total of 2655 candidates, including 219 women are in the poll fray for the Saturday’s polls.

Political parties will hold multiple rallies and roadshows today in their last ditch efforts to woo the voters.

BJP President Amit Shah and the party’s chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa will participate in a roadshow in chief minister Siddaramaiah’s Badami constituency today.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi will also campaign for their party on the final day.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for the attacks on women and minorities across the country. “When Dalits are killed, minorities are killed, Modiji doesn’t say a word. Earlier, he used to say that ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao. Now, it is being said that ‘Beti BJP ke MLA se Bachao’. We have seen what has happened in Unnao,” said Rahul who was addressing a rally in Bengaluru on Wednesday during the campaign for the Karnataka Assembly elections. Meanwhile, the BJP and the Congress continued to spar over the 10,000 voter IDs that were recovered from a flat in Bengaluru late on Tuesday night. BJP’s Prakash Javadekar said that the seizure by the Election Commission exposed the Congress’ conspiracy to rig the elections. The BJP also demanded countermanding of polls in Rajarajeshwari Nagar Assembly constituency. The Congress countered the claim and said that “raid” was “staged” as the BJP was afraid of the imminent defeat in the Karnataka Assembly elections.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday drew parallels between the functioning of RSS-BJP and the Muslim Brotherhood (a Sunni Islamist fundamentalist forum founded in Egypt).

Criticising the BJP government at the Centre for attempting to take over institutions, Rahul said at an event in Bengaluru that the exact phenomena could be seen with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Pakistan, Tunisia trying to destroy democracy.

“They (BJP-RSS and Muslim Brotherhood) do this because they know they can come to power once but not return. When they come to power, they want to capture institutions. Another circle of this and there won’t be a need for democracy,” he said..

Speaking about his possibilities of becoming the Prime Minister, Rahul said, “If Congress emerges the largest party in the opposition coalition in 2019, then, perhaps.”

In Tumakuru, he said, these polls have been a fight of two ideologies — secular and communal–and asked the JD(S) to clarify its stand.

G.T. Deve Gowda is a prominent Vokkaliga leader in Mysuru district and a loyal supporter of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and Janata Dal (Secular) State President H.D. Kumaraswamy. He is known as a grassroots politician who worked his way up the ladder and represented Hunsur and Chamundeshwari candidates as a nominee of the JD(S). He is confident that he will emerge as a “giant killer” in the polls, due to the prevailing anger against the Siddaramaiah government.

The Chamundeshwari constituency is the battle ground for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and H.D. Kumaraswamy, where Mr. Gowda is the central pivot. He says that the people of the constituency are disappointed with the CM since he had neglected it for the past 10 years, and now, makes half-baked promises of development during the elections. He thinks that Chamundeshwari was the factor which propelled Mr. Siddaramaiah from being an ordinary MLA to becoming the CM. In spite of this, the CM has not done anything for the people of Chamundehswari.

He attributed his grassroots cooperative activism to keeping in touch with the interest of the masses, by touring the constituencies and cultivating the confidence of the voters. Mr. Siddaramaiah, he felt in contrast, was aloof and detached in his campaigns. Mr. Gowda opines that his personal appeal will transcend boundaries of caste in the polarised place that is Chamundeshwari.

The constituency has 2.9 lakh voters, a third of whom are urbane citizens. Though it is difficult to predict the victory in the segment, there is a shared opinion that its outcome will decide which party comes to power in the State.

PTI

The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday documented a First Information Report (FIR) on discovering counterfoils and 9,746 voters ID cards in the Rajarajeshwari Nagar.

The state’s Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said on late Tuesday night “An FIR is being enrolled after almost 9,746 voter cards were found in a flat in Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency alongside around one lakh counterfoils looking like acknowledgment slips utilized for expansion of names into electoral rolls were discovered,”

On investigation, the voter cards were observed to be genuine, while the counterfoils were to be checked through examination, Kumar said. Five workstations and one printer were additionally found in the loft, he included.

“Further investigation will be directed into the issue and will be nearly checked by the EC,” he said.

Three eyewitnesses from the poll pane visiting the flat in the constituency, which has a total of 4,35,439 voters, Kumar said.

Alongside Kumar, the District Election Officer and the city’s municipal body Commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao, the city Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar had visited the area where the voter cards were found.

The representative of the Congress party Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that the flat where the voter IDs were discovered had a place with a BJP leader.

“BJP instituted this show in a flat having a place with their own leader Manjula Nanjamari. She has leased the flat to her son who challenged the 2015 BBMP (Bengaluru urban body) elections on a BJP ticket. The flat was raided not by police or EC but rather by BJP workers,” Surjewala affirmed.

Union Human Resource Development Minister and the gathering’s in-control for state surveys Prakash Javadekar said in a tweet “The BJP requests rescinding of elections in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in light of most recent disclosures of a huge number of fake voter IDs and discharge parcels of hard cash. This is Congress intrigue to fix decision even with their unavoidable annihilation,”

PTI

With only two days have been left for canvassing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address four rallies in Bangarpet, Chikkaamagaluru, Belagavi and Bidar on Wednesday (May 09).

Congress President Rahul Gandhi will hold meetings in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, BJP has demanded to countermand of elections in Raj Rajeshwari Nagar constituency following the recovery of tens of thousands voters identity cards and empty packers of hard currency from a house.

On Tuesday, 9,746 voter identity cards were found in bundles in an apartment yesterday in Bengaluru.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

There may not be an action replay in one urban constituency in this district, Narasimharaja. Electing one Muslim family five years ago and nine times earlier it may not go for it this year.

Moving fast backward, it may opt for another Muslim candidate who was a runner-up in the previous poll. Abdul Majeed was defeated in 2013 by only 9,000 votes.

Mainly because of it, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), which is the political wing of the Kerala-based Popular Front of India, has fielded him again.

It is not the only bad news for the Sait family which has won the seat ten times — six times by Azeez Sait and four times by his son, Tanveer. The family has hit the headlines for attack by its supporter on a media person.

Correspondent of a national English daily has filed a police complaint saying that he was manhandled by his suppoters in the city when he was collecting some information.

The family has apologised but the case has not been withdrawn. An inquiry, therefore, is being made. Further action will be taken in the light of inquiry report.

Some journalist bodies have now joined the fight.

There has been one more complaint to the police. The complainant in the second case is the Congress, the party Sait belongs to. The party has complained against the SDPI candidate, Mazeed, for pinning state chief minister Siddaramaiah picture on his lapel and allegedly telling the people that he has got his “blessings”.

Since this action can confuse Congress supporters the party has lodged a complaint against him.

The constituency has been a Congress bastion. The BJP has won it only once in 1994, that too with a small margin. The other major contestant here is JDS.

Interestingly, the Samajwadi Party, which has parted company with the Congress as well as the Bahujan Samaj Party, in Karnataka, has fielded 31 candidates in the state including one in this constituency. It is not a major force in the southern region.

It is the second party, after the BJP, which has put up a Hindu candidate in this Muslim-dominated constituency.

A member of the family, Azeez Sait, was first elected from this seat in 1967. He was re-elected in next poll. Azeez bagged the seat four more times, representing the constituency for 30 years.

His son Tanveer who is seeking re-election has been already elected four times and is sure of victory again (fifth time).

The BJP strategy this time seems to be to polarise Hindu votes. For this purpose it has put up a Hindu candidate, Sandesh Swamy. As its rivals have put up Muslim candidates, a consolidation of Hindu votes may help the party.

The Congress, for all these reasons, is having a tough time in this constituency. The going is not easy for the party in some others including Krishnaraja. Under the circumstances, it is unlikely to repeat its 2013 performance and bag eight out of eleven seats in the district.

Hindusthan Samachar/ R. Narayan/ Shri Ram Shaw