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
