Closer to poll date, it’s time for mind games in K’taka
Election time is speculation time. It’s also the time to play mind games with political rivals and peers within parties. If Narendra Modi declared the Congress would be reduced to being PPP — Punjab-Puducherry Party — after the Karnataka polls, Rahul Gandhi claimed Modi wouldn’t be PM after the 2019 polls. Little wonder, then, that the air is thick in Karnataka with countless projections and conspiracy theories.
Let’s first talk about the Congress. A story doing the rounds is about aspirants for the chief minister’s office (other than Siddaramaiah) secretly wishing for a hung Assembly. But why? Well, a fractured verdict will put them in the race; the belief being that HD Deve Gowda of Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), won’t support the incumbent, who is his former understudy, and now a sworn rival.
Among those lying in wait to pull off an ambush could be Dalit heavyweights Mallikarjuna Kharge and PCC chief Dr G Parameshwara who lost elections and the CM’s slot in 2013. The third claimant might be state minister DK Shivakumar, an ambitious Vokkaliga whose challenge is weaker on account of income tax and Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases he faces.
The chief minister’s lobby claims to be winning 120-odd seats. But those desirous of a postelection leadership battle quote figures below hundred. Their projections may come true. For the present, they appear to be riding on fond hopes that can be realised only through external intervention, not from moves within, given Siddaramaiah’s primacy within the party.
The CM isn’t hamstrung any more by the “outsider tag” the loyalists used in 2013 as a reminder of his JD(S) past to question his ascendency in the Congress. In fact, the ongoing campaign is a contest between the CM and the PM. Amid their high voltage face-off, BS Yeddyurappa seems kind of benched or getting reduced to defending Ballari’s infamous Reddy brothers.
It’s widely believed in BJP circles that Goa could repeat in Karnataka if the party’s tally is less than that of the Congress but a coalition regime is possible with Deve Gowda’s help. Yeddyurappa could then be expended in post-poll machinations to accommodate the JD (S), with or without conceding to it the CM’s office. Those looking for such an opening are leaders motivated by the Himachal experience in which PK Dhumal lost his seat and the CM’s office.
The gainer was Jairam Thakur, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-blessed wild card entry. His wife incidentally is from Shimoga, Yeddyurappa’s parliamentary constituency in central Karnataka.
The BJP’s Lingayat face may not personally lose. But not being able to replicate the 2008 numbers would be loss enough.
His detractors are the very people who had a hand in cutting short his stint amid graft allegations after the BJP’s victory a decade ago.