Congress moves quickly to avert a rerun of Goa fiasco
NEW DELHI: Slow to react in Goa, Manipur, and then Meghalaya, where it was the single largest party, yet ended up on the opposition benches, the Congress moved quickly in Karnataka when it realised the BJP would end up as the single largest party, but without a clear majority.
By 11 in the morning, the Congress knew for sure that the BJP would fall short of the majority mark of 112; it immediately reached out to the JD(S), which until a few hours ago the party called a “B-team of the BJP”.
Two senior Congress leaders, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok Gehlot, who were rushed to Bengaluru on Monday, swung into action and got into a huddle, a party leader familiar with the developments said.
Azad spoke to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and both agreed to a plan giving unconditional support to the JD(S) in forming a coalition government headed by HD Kumaraswamy, the only guaranteed way of getting that party on board, while, at the same time, preventing the BJP from forming another government.
“The priority was to prevent the BJP from forming the government and for that we were ready to give the leadership role to the JD(S),” the leader said, asking not to be identified.
Outgoing chief minister Siddaramaiah, who was considered the only stumbling block in the entire plan, given his history with the JD(S), especially Kumaraswamy, was taken on board and informed about the high command’s decision.
“Siddaramaiah accepted. He knew the repercussions of vetoing the plan were bigger than any individual’s ego. It was a unanimous decision. We wanted to change tomorrow’s newspaper headlines and we succeeded in that. We had to stop the BJP at any cost,” said another Congress leader who was part of the deliberations and who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Azad, who is known to share cordial relations with leaders across the political spectrum, then called up former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and his son Kumaraswamy.