Under the circumstances, the happy tidings from Karnataka, has come as a balm to soothe the ruffled nerves of the party leaders. What has made the party savour the occasion, has been that the victory was not snatched, but got in on a platter as it were from the BJP and the party had not even made one single effort to wear the mantle. Its peformanance as the principal opposition party as pathetic to put it mildly. It was a case of disenchanted people turning to the Congress once again mainly because of the TINA (there is no other alternative) factor.
After the poll results, it has been turn for the national BJP to go through the embarrassing moments. Its southern edifice has fallen like a pack of cards. And this is not a good omen for the party, which is increasingly flexing its muscle for the major electoral battle that lies ahead and has been dreaming of replacing the Congress led UPA at the Centre.
Very few in Congress however appear to have understood the real implications of the mandate. The vote in Karnataka has been a vote for better governance essentially and for political stability to boot, the two factors which have obviously taken a holiday right from 2004. The Congress is now required to put person who can govern well and provide political stability. And this is hard task by any standards for the Congress. There has been sudden spurt in the aspirants who want to don the mantle of the Chief Ministership. The main aspirant has been the Leader of the Opposition Mr Siddaramaiah, an OBC leader who has been waiting in the side wings too long to take over as the Chief Minister. The denial of the coveted post during the Janata Dal regime by his one time mentor turned bete noire Devegowda made him embrace the Congress and here too he has been put on a long and unending probation. The name of Mr Mallikarjun Kharge, the Dalit leader, who has a record of nine straight wins to the assembly and success in the only loksabha election he contested last time, is also doing rounds. Mr Kharge is currently the Union Minister for Labour and Employment and it was because of the initiative taken by him, that the Centre agreed to provide special status for the backward region of Hyderabad Karnataka, to which he belongs through a constitutional amendments. In any exigency the former Chief Ministers, Mr Krishna and Mr Veerappa Moily , who is Union Minister are not averse to come back to take over the mantle. The whole dilemma facing the Congress is to have a man at the helm of affairs in Karnataka, capable of getting large number of Congress MPs elected from Karnataka, since numbers are important for the party to rule at New Delhi.
Besides the track record of the Congress shows that it has often slipped up on the question of providing good governance. Ever since the first non Congress government was formed in Karnataka in 1983, the electorate has been averse to giving second term to any party, which has not delivered goods. That’s how the Janata Dal lost power in 1989, and 1994 and it was the Congress turn to face the music and pay for its lapses, when the people trusted them in rule in 1989 and 1999. In 1989, the dissidence in the Congress resulted in state having three Chief Minister and during the regime of the third Chief Minister Mr Moily, the Congress was shown the door. Disenchanted with the perpetual quarrel within the Janata Dal which resulted in the split of the parent party, the electorate gave marching orders to the party in 1999. Mr Krishna who came as the new Chief Minister proved to be disappointment. In his desire to turn Bangalore into Singapore, Mr Krishna turned a blind eye to the people’s problems. He catered to the needs of the urbanites and elites, while leaving the rural people in the lurch. So much was his disdain for the ruralites that Krishna chose to conduct meetings to review the drought in the interiors in the air-conditioned meeting halls rather than going to the field. The disconnect between the government and the governed was total.
In 2004 election, where no party got the majority, the electorate had punished the Congress by denying the party the status of single largest party in the assembly, which went to the BJP. And the efforts made by the Congress to circumvent the mandate and rule the state through coalition experiment with a regional party, the JDS ended in a disaster. The JDS gave a slip to Congress and left the coalition to form a new coalition with BJP, which also did not last long because of their mutual suspicion among the coalition partner. The government literally drifted aimlessly during this tenure.
So the electorate chose to trust the BJP which was waiting in the wings for an opportunity to govern in the 2008 elections. The people simply believed the BJP and its leader Mr Yeddyurappa who made an emotionally charged plea to give his party an opportunity. The people obliged and put the party in power. The people also tolerated the unethical manner in which Yeddyyurappa sought to firm up his majority. And at one time, it looked as if Yeddyurappa and his party would be around at the helm of affairs for long time in Karnataka.
When the BJP hoisted the saffron flag for the first time in Karnataka, it was a history being created. The party, for the first time was able to break the geographical barrier in travelling south of Vindhyas in expanding its political base. The BJP’s national leadership thought year 2008 was going to be watershed year for the party plan to expand the base away from its traditional pockets in North India.
The BJP regime proved to be classical case of disaster of unmitigated dimensions. For the first three years of the regime, that is upto 2011, everything was going fine for the BJP. It all started with Lokayukta indicting the government and the Chief Minister with regard to the illegal mining affairs. And Mr Yeddyurappa in his anxiety to wriggle out of the situation messed up the issues further. The things moved with such frenetic speed that the damage was done before one could realise it. The tale of misgovernanance of the Yeddyurappa regime is too recent to merit repetition. The last straw to break the back was the manner in which Yeddyurappa quit the party in a huff after he unsuccessfully tried to install himself as the Chief Minister from which he had been asked to quit earlier by the party high command.
It appeared that Yeddyurappa was overpowered by an exaggerated notion of self importance and placed himself above the party and parted company to dismantle the party apparatus, which he had earlier tried to build. It was case of mentor turning out to be tormentor.
By floating his own person centric party with the sole aim of getting back the chief minister’s post, Yeddyurappa might have proved that he was too important within the party to be ignored. He managed to dismantle the party in the election as has been seen but his own party could not make much headway. It spoiled the chances of the parent party but had no capacity to emerge as a political force to be reckoned with. He had cut the branch of the tree on which he was sitting and he fell along with the branch too on the face. It would take long long time for the BJP to pick up the pieces to put its house in order once again.
An interesting aspect of the election, was the unobtrusive manner in which the electorate brought about the change punishing Yeddyurappa, and his present and former political outfits but gave only a modest majority for the Congress to deliver the goods in the days to come.
The poll turn out reached the highest peak with around 71% of the 4.36 crore exercising the franchise, which is a record for Karnataka so far. Among the electorate, there were 36 lakhs newly enrolled voters, who had had no political baptism so far. And this section, whose presence was hardly taken cognisance by any political party, had helped the BJP in the last three election to bridge yawning gap as far as the voting base is concerned and brought it on level with Congress in just three elections of 1999, 2004 and 2008. And all the while the Congress had not been able to get a single vote extra over and above its base of around 90 lakhs, while the BJP had enjoyed the bonanza exclusively.
This time around 3.08 crore voters exercised their franchise, which meant that an additional 48 lakhs had exercised franchise, made up of 36 lakh new voters, who would never miss the maiden opportunity to cast their votes and another 12 lakhs of senior voters who came out of the comforts of their house to do their duty and to clearly send out a message for the parties to perform or perish. It was as though a virtual tsunami of people’s power had descended.
And it came about in a quiet manner. The curbs placed by the Election Commission, in transporting voters to the booths had denied them a facility to which they were used to. They came on their own walking and braving the scorching sun to cast their votes on a hot sunny day. The people’s majesty was in view in correcting the aberrations that had been kept in. The BJP lost more than what Yeddyurappa and another breakaway group led by Sriramulu could nibble at the base of the BJP. The first time voters, for the first time in ten years, were looking beyond the BJP for extending their patronage. It is this which brought about the needed change with requisite message loud and clear.
The author is a senior journalist and columnist based in Hubli
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