Invincible BJP suddenly looks beatable
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BY THE evening of May 15, it was clear no party would get a majority in the assembly elections held in Karnataka, home to India’s IT hub.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), though ahead of the Congress, had failed to muster a simple majority in a house of 225 legislators. Screaming headlines in newspapers claimed how the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendramodi, had broken through the southern bastion. Before the BJP could savour its electoral triumph and get its support together to prove its majority, the Congress and a regional party, Janata Dal (Secular), ganged up to puncture their hopes.
In a matter of 48 hours, Indian politics had dealt a cruel blow to the BJP’S ambition to not just wrest control of an elusive southern state, but hurt its prospects in the 2019 parliament elections. Suddenly, the invincible BJP looks beatable.
As the single largest party, BJP got the first shot to prove its majority on the floor of the assembly, but uncharacteristically Congress proved to be a step ahead. Normally somnolent, the grand old party extended unconditional support to a regional party, JD (S), to ensure its legislators were not poached by BJP.
Needless to say, BJP has more resources and less compunction about pulling in people from different parties to come to power.
BJP, Karnataka State leader, BS Yeddyurappa, who had been appointed as the chief minister by the governor of the state, soon after the results were announced, was initially given 15 days to prove his majority. But this was questioned by the Congress party that sought the Supreme
Court’s intervention on the plea that a fortnight would provide an opportunity for “horse trading” and would subvert democracy.
Reacting, the apex court gave only a day to Yeddyurappa to prove his party had a majority compared with the coalition that claimed 116 in a house of 225 seats. To buttress its claims the BJP immorally garners support, Congress armed its legislators with recording apps on their Smartphones to capture any suggestions of bribes.
Congress leaders were able to collect a trove of evidence, thus convincing the court their legislators were not safe if 15 days were given to the predatory instinct of those desperate for a majority. Recordings released to the media suggested BJP managers were hyperactive trying to win legislators from the Congress and JD (S) through bribes. Typical of these times, legislators of Congress and JD (S) were hidden in safe sanctuaries from which they could not be extracted by their opponents.
Realising that he was short of numbers, BJP’S chief minister Yeddyurappa resigned after barely 48 hours of being sworn in as the chief minister of Karnataka.
The JD (S)-congress alliance led by HD Kumaraswamy was invited to form the government.
This coming together of Congress with JD (S) provides an early glimpse of how the opposition parties propose to fight the ruling BJP in the 2019 general elections. This coming together has the potential to upset the plans of BJP, which hoped to win against a fragmented opposition.
BJP, with bottomless funds and a large cadre of supporters, is determined to make India a
Hindu country. This poses a serious existential problem for other parties that are uncomfortable with this exclusionary political paradigm.
The coming together of parties has been criticised by pollsters as flawed as it could enlarge BJP’S electoral space in areas where they do not even exist, in a diverse country like India.
The opposition unity, gingerly achieved in some by-polls, has yielded positive dividends for non-bjp parties. In five by-polls in different states, BJP was roundly defeated. Worse was the party defeat from the parliament seat of the rabble-rousing Hindu monk and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, and that of his deputy.
A major impact of Karnataka events will be felt on the bureaucracy, judiciary and media, which, many believe, are living in fear. Courts have thrown out cases that could embarrass the government.
Four senior judges decided to step out and address a press conference suggesting that democracy was in danger. The way the Supreme Court asked the BJP to prove its majority within a day in Karnataka suggests a push-back by the judiciary against the BJP government, to recover its lost credibility, may have begun.
As India heads to elections, institutional resistance to aggressive governing could be the norm.
Kapoor is Independent Media’s correspondent in Delhi and editor of Hard News.