’ HUNG HOUSE TO GOVERNOR HOUSE How kingmaker JD(S) could step forward as king
KARNATAKA VERDICT BJP falls agonisingly short of majority mark; Congress and JD(S) join hands to muster numbers; both sides stake claim to form government in state
BENGALURU/NEW DELHI: Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala will have to decide whom he invites to form the next government in the state after the elections resulted in a hung house with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as the single largest party with 104 seats but short of a majority by 8 seats. The Congress, which won 78 seats, in a surprise move extended unconditional support to the Janata Dal (Secular) which won 38 seats to form and head a government. Both the BJP and the Jd(s)-congress met with Vala.
Elections were held to 222 of the 224 assembly seats in the state. A party or coalition needs the support of 112 members to have a simple majority in the house.
Vala is yet to decide on who to invite to form the government and is expected to wait for the list of winners from the Election Commission, and discuss the issue with constitutional and legal experts. There is no law on this, but there are precedents and conventions of both the single largest party and a post-poll alliance with the numbers being invited to form the government.
The Congress seemed visibly relieved that it had moved fast to strike a partnership with the JD(S) and stake claim to form the government and followed up with a press conference in New Delhi to argue why the combine should be invited to form the government. It also didn’t miss the opportunity to point out that this is exactly what the BJP has done in Goa, Manipur, and Meghalaya, where the party was part of a post-poll alliance invited ahead of the single largest party to form the government.
When asked what they would do in case the governor does not invite them, Randeep Surjewala, Congress’s chief of communication department, said, “We will explore all options,” hinting at moving court.
Speaking at party HQ in Delhi, BJP president Amit Shah said the mandate was for a Congress-free state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the win unprecedented. BENGALURU: Often derided as ‘Appa Makala Paksha’ (father and sons party) or a Vokkaliga party because of its heavy reliance on the votes of Karnataka’s second-largest community, the Janata Dal (Secular) is now in a position to decide who rules Karnataka.
The JD(S) in its current avatar is a breakaway faction of the original Janata Party which has ruled Karnataka in the past. In 1999, former Prime Minister Deve Gowda decided to form his own faction and adopted the label of ‘Secular’ to differentiate from other rumps of the Janata Party.
The JD(S) is primarily seen as a force in southern Karnataka which is the Old Mysuru region comprised of the districts of Mysuru, Chamrajanagara, Mandya, Hassan, Tumakuru, Bengaluru, Kolar and Chitradurga districts. The JD(S) has won 32 of its 38 seats from this region. It has negligible presence in northern Karnataka, coastal Karnataka and central parts of the state.
After the last Janata Party government of JH Patel lost power to the Congress, the Janata Parivar which was earlier a big tent that included all castes, communities, regions and religions, was isolated to the Vokkaliga belt. Under the JD(S) in 2004, it again became the fulcrum of Karnataka politics by winning 58 seats in a hung house. It entered into an alliance with the Congress in 2004, only to see HD Kumaraswamy, the son of Deve Gowda, walk away with the bulk of MLAS to form an alliance with the BJP and become chief minister. After going back on his promise to transfer power to the BJP, it went in for early elections, this time only to see the saffron party form a government of its own riding on a wave of sympathy due to the JD(S)’S “betrayal”.
In 2013, the Congress got a full majority, which meant the JD(S) had no role to play. In between, Siddaramaiah, a former close aide of Deve Gowda who had been made deputy CM in an earlier coalition with the Congress, had a fight with the Gowda family and left.