ELECTIONS IN KARNATAKA: HOW BJP PLANNED HARA-KIRI

ELECTIONS IN KARNATAKA: HOW BJP PLANNED HARA-KIRI?

BY

PG Kamath

The saga of election results opens in Karnataka. For many political commentators and self-styled psephologists it is the usual; ‘after event wise’ or ‘I told you so’:?Many articles have been written with many substantiating their clairvoyance by citing their previous comments. Let me join this stately group and try to tell you; what went wrong for the BJP.

?It was a non-starter right from the beginning. The Home Minister and his advisers in Delhi trying to micromanage affairs in Karnataka; let alone feel the pulse of people and forge a strategy; they do not even know the spelling of Karnataka. I really do not know whether the Home Minister is at fault or the BJP President contributed handsomely to the debacle. Add to that Santosh, General Secretary of BJP, was there to execute the debacle with his experimentation: Be that as it may; let us see how the debacle was planned?

Firstly, why was Yeddyurappa removed from the CM's post? If he was above 75; so also, is the NSA. Yeddy must leave but NSA sticks on: What logic? So, the party sacked the CM who had brought the party to power and replaced him with his protégé; Bommai.?Nothing wrong with the latter except that he was foisted to the position by the outgoing CM with a clear-cut aim that he can still hold on to some power and control affairs in the state.?Hence, Yeddy, instead of recommending a person who can hold his own, recommended his protégé so that he can do some backseat driving. Whether he did it or not; is not an issue anymore: The fact was that Bommai probably was not the best, person to spearhead the party to victory in the state election with only two years left.?In the next move, Yeddy who was sacked by the Party was given the reins to lead the party for the state election.?One must be a moron of very high calibre to hatch this strategy??Clear minds would not be able to think of such moves; it really requires political genius with loads of naivety to hatch the collapse.??It also vindicated that the CM did not inspire the high command and the retired CM was brought to lead the party to elections. If that was so, why was he removed in the first place?

Second; was the revoking of the 4 per cent quota for Muslims in reservations based on religion a masterstroke? Though technically and legally it may be correct, however, the timing was not at all appropriate.?Constitutionally; the move could be right as Muslim is not a community but a religion; however, this was not the time for it. ?It further alienated the Muslims without getting the Lingayats and Okkaligas any closer than they were before.

Lunacy does not end there; it comes in spasms. Pitting R Ashok from Kanakapura against the seven-time MLA DK Shivakumar can only be planned by a person who has just escaped from a padded cell.?Obviously; Ashok was concentrating on his, main constituency Padmanabhpura; rather they could have brought some local BJP functionary of Kanakapura who is known to the public and groomed him up for the future.?Another foolish gamble was to field V Somanna, a former minister from two constituencies; Chamarajanagar and Varuna. In Varuna, he was gambling against Siddaramaiah.?He lost in both as the party did not give him time to concentrate his campaign in one constituency.?Even if the Congress High Command was strategizing for the BJP, they could not have done better than the BJP High Command to roll out such a rout.

BJP did not mobilise the seers of local Mutts who command a large following.?They also could not spread the message of the overall development of the state.?The 40 per cent tag of corruption caught the imagination of people.?Gas cylinders were paraded by the Congress for their high price as people forgot that the Ujjwal Yojna of BJP enabled them to get the gas connection, in the first place. The asset of the BJP has turned into their liability by parading the price rise. No development programmes and infrastructures caught the imagination of the people as freebies carried the day. I really do not think the Karyakartas of the BJP were successful in mobilising popular opinion for the party.

Generally, a higher polling percentage benefits the BJP.?Though the overall percentage of voting was one of the highest, Silicon City polled only about 54 per cent of votes.???It is also believed the voice of karyakartas was not heard while selecting candidates.?It is they who really know the pulse of the people in each constituency.?Not giving a ticket to Laxman Savadi was a blunder; though the turncoat won handsomely on a Congress ticket; it was noteworthy he was not made a minister. I could not help deriving pleasure in the defeat of another turncoat Shettar who lost from his home constituency on a Congress ticket. Both these highflyers formerly from BJP do not have any loyalty to the party hence we should let them stew in their own juice.

What is intriguing is the number of days, time, and resources that the BJP Government spent on the ceremonies to mourn the sad and untimely demise of popular Sandalwood icon Puneeth Rajkumar.?He was also awarded Karnataka Ratna in a glittering ceremony with all the high and mighty. His memorial ceremonies were many and massive and attracted lakhs of fans. Almost all the BJP ministers led by the CM left no stone to join his fans in several sympathy functions. Despite, such a massive show of support by the government, Shiva Rajkumar the head of the Rajkumar family was seen campaigning for Congress. Ingratitude; no doubt is unkinder than the winter’s wind; I think it was Shakespeare who said it.

The only satisfaction that the BJP can take is that the percentage of votes in its favour has remained the same as in the previous election.?The Congress took more than five per cent of votes from the JDS of Kumaraswamy.?JDS can only blame itself as family feuds became public spectacles.?Even their hard-core supporters did not take their family dramas kindly and gave it a shove and voted for the Congress.?It was the poor show of JDS that routed the BJP and gave a massive sweep to Congress. A BJP-JDS Combo could have won the elections; however, the HM in his own wisdom or lack of it, had ruled it out ab initio. Another highlight of the elections was the ‘AAP’ could not win a single seat.?While driving in Bangalore; I could not help looking at the smirk on the face of Kejri behind autorickshaws.?Even after the election results the smirk remained as the owners of the autorickshaws were lazy to remove the posters. After the results, one wondered why he was still sporting the smirk.?

Now the entire state is waiting for Congress to fulfil their 5-Gurantees which are believed to cost 65,000 crores.?BJP obviously is smacking its lips to see the discomfiture of Congress.?Interesting times are ahead in Karnataka; watch out for more political drama.???