Second fiddle in K’taka not the first for Congress in a coalition
FAULT LINES Similar tales from Bihar, Maharashtra but analysts point towards a wise strategy NEWDELHI:
The tussle over sharing of portfolios between the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka has once again exposed the fault lines in the grand old party’s alliance strategy.
After days of intense negotiations, the Congress conceded to the demands of the JD(S) and handed over to it key portfolios of finance, excise, power, and public works department besides the allimportant post of chief minister it had already given to it. In return, the Congress had to contend with the home ministry and Bengaluru development authority.
The Congress was willing to make compromises despite having secured more seats than the JD(S). With Thursday’s victory in RR Nagar, the Congress took its tally to 79 seats in the 224-member Karnataka assembly. The JD(S)-Bahujan Samaj Party combine won from 38 constituencies while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 104 seats.
Attempts to prevent the BJP from forming a government in yet another state at any cost, and to give shape to a wide-ranging Opposition unity before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were visible in the Congress’ major climb down as it readily agreed to play the role of a junior partner in Karnataka’s coalition government. The BJP is in power on its own or in coalition in 20 states as of now.
But Karnataka isn’t the first state where Congress had to cede ground to its alliance partner.
In Bihar, it remained a dominant political force until 1990 when it was ousted following the emergence of Mandal (reservation) politics championed by Rashtriya Janatal Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad.
The Congress stitched an alliance with the RJD for the first time in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections. This tie-up continued for 1999 and 2004 Lok Sabha and the 2005 assembly elections.
In 1998, the Congress won five seats with a vote share of 7.72%, which slipped to 4.78% in 1999
THE CONGRESS HAD TO HAND OVER TO JD(S) PORTFOLIOS OF EXCISE, FINANCE, POWER, AND PWD WHILE HAVING TO CONTEND WITH HOME AND BENGALURU CITY DEVELOPMENT BODY
when it won four seats. With a vote share of 4.8%, the party won three seats in 2004.
When the Congress decided to take up “Ekla chalo (go it alone)” tune in 2009 Lok Sabha and the 2010 assembly elections, it had to eat a humble pie. The party won just two out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2009 and only four of the 243 assembly seats in 2010 polls.
“Once we agreed to play a junior partner to the RJD, the people stopped taking us seriously. At the same time, we have not paid any attention to strengthening our party at the grassroots level or empowering the workers. Our leaders are interested only in preserving their self-interests and for that they promote the coalition politics,” senior Congress leader Kishore Kumar Jha said.
“It is sad to see a party that ruled the state (Bihar) for decades has been reduced to a marginal player,” he added.
In Maharashtra, the Congress struck an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Sharad Pawar in 1999 to form a coalition government. Since then, the two parties have been engaged in a battle of oneupmanship. Despite winning more seats in 1999 and 2004 assembly elections, the NCP conceded the chief minister’s post to the Congress in return for more ministerial berths.
But the worry for the Congress has been the growing ambition of the NCP to expand its base across the state at its cost. After becoming a dominant player in western Maharashtra, Pawar’s party has made deep inroads into the Congress bastion of Vidarbha region. It is already on an equal footing in Khandesh and Marathwada.
The two parted ways on a bitter note in 2014, helping the BJP emerge victorious in the assembly elections. The Congress won 42 seats in the 288-member assembly and the NCP bagged 41 with a vote share of 17.95% and 17.24%, respectively. They once again joined the hands for the recentlyconcluded bypolls, with the Congress losing Palghar Lok Sabha seat and the NCP winning from Bhandara-Gondia assembly seat.
In Jharkhand, too, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has always flexed its muscles in the alliance talks and ended up getting a larger share in seats distribution.
However, political observers view it as a strategy of the Congress to develop on the Shimla formula of cultivating partners and alliances. “Federal coalitions involve granting political space to partners at the state level. It is a wise strategy provided the favour is returned at the national level,” said Delhi-based political analyst Professor Balveer Arora.
The Congress’ resolve to evolve a common workable programme with like-minded parties to defeat the BJP in 2019 was outlined at the party’s 84th plenary session in March this year.
While the party has decided to continue with its alliance strategy adopted at the Shimla conclave in 2003, it did not insist on leading the coalition this time. The Shimla declaration had rejected the 1998 Pachmarhi resolution that laid special emphasis on following the ‘ekala chalo (go it alone)’ line.