Events & Issues

New Delhi, 29 May 2009

Yeddyurappa’s Victory

WILL DELHI PLAY SPOILSPORT?

By Deepak Thimaya

Is anyone surprised with the result of the Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka? Certainly don’t include Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa in that list. However, he is said to be disappointed that he could not pocket a few more seats that were lost by a small margin and perhaps by a miserable quirk of fate.

His promise to take action against the district in-charge ministers in the losing segments has come in for curious scrutiny because some of the constituencies where the BJP lost, particularly Mysore, were where Yeddyurappa’s close associates and both ‘right and left hand’ ministers are in charge. How he would manage to take action against them would still be a big political question. The fact that the CM is beaming with arrogance and pride for improving his performance with an additional seat compared to last Lok Sabha polls is something not even the most disinterested citizen of Karnataka has failed to notice.

So what happens now in Karnataka? Some Congressmen waiting haplessly for the elusive chair of power say that the re-energized BJP will start committing mistakes clouded by the arrogance of power and that would lead to its own downfall. Or Yeddyurappa may become such a formidable a leader that he may ignorantly allow a fertile ground for dissidence to form just around his feet, which he would fail to see with his nose up in the air all the time.

It is Yeddyurappa’s victory indeed and not the BJP’s, in Karnataka, so what happens to the big leaders of the State at the Centre? In fact, there is none other than Ananth Kumar from Karnataka who represents the BJP in Delhi. It is either him or his stooges in small positions in the national executive council. Kumar himself has won against a young Congress leader, in a roller coaster counting, where the young politician had surged ahead in many Assembly segments sending shivers down the spine and sweat down the chests for many of Kumar’s supporters.

Defeat of Ananth Kumar would have only meant big time trouble for Yeddyurappa, since a jobless Kumar would any day find it worthwhile to occupy himself in the role of the dissidents’ leader. Thus, there could have been none other more relieved in the party than Yeddyurappa himself with Kumar’s ultimate victory.

So what does this astounding victory spell for the BJP in the State? Primarily, it has proven again that this is possible because of caste polarisation and careful political strategising, enabled by large-scale poaching and recruitment from other parties. The BJP now can only crumble under its own weight and its heavy weights. In fact, there are no original heavy weights left in the BJP but those who have come from other parties. To accommodate the leaders, who have not been lucky enough to go to the Lok Sabha or get a ministerial berth in the State, the CM needs to destroy the future of some original party men. This, however, is bound to create a platform for dissidence, which will show its results within the next six months.

Without a strong central leadership to control him, Yeddyurappa could become a law unto himself and the weakening of the mine owners also has come as a great blessing to him. Indeed, he is the unquestionable leader who, with no ambition for power at the Centre, is the King for now. In fact, there are very few among Yeddyurappa’s friends who are crying for the defeat of the NDA in the Lok Sabha polls. Some say they are quietly celebrating. With a sulking Advani and other party leaders, Yeddyurappa’s stars are shining brighter than ever, in spite of famous astrologers crying hoarse about the impending gloomy days for him. Whether the brightness of this glory will keep him shining or burn him down only time will tell, but perhaps very soon.

On the Congress front, if anyone believes that there is a chance of the party’s revival in the State after former Chief Minister SM Krishna getting a cabinet berth, then such a dream can be dreamt only in foreign waters. With an epithet like ‘foreign Krishna’ attached to his personality because of his studies abroad, westernised lifestyle and frequent sightings at Wimbledon, even when he was the CM, his love for the foreign shores has now become legitimised with this appointment.  

Whether Kannadigas in particular, Karnataka in general or his own caste -- the Vokkaligas would benefit from his foreign ministry is a smaller question, compared to the big one about political gains, if any for Congress in Karnataka with his new avatar. This post has not only kept Krishna out of State politics and the party in Karnataka but also from any ‘internal politics’ itself, much to the pleasure of Krishna baiters, who would want him out of their political dining table at any cost.

Another former Chief Minister M Veerappa Moily is neither a political heavy weight nor a leader of any group or community, though by default represents the backward classes. His win itself was a surprise to many in a constituency he was alien to. Now as a Union Law Minister, Moily will seek to further get closer to the First family, the Gandhis rather than concentrate on his home State.

Mallikarjuna Kharge, the dalit leader, the one politician who has never seen defeat in any election for over 40 years, is now a Union minister, in charge of labour. This was a long-pending elevation the dalit and backward communities have been waiting for. By missing the CM’s chair time and again thanks to bad timing and bad luck, this was Kharge’s one big chance to find favour in Delhi. Though Kharge is not known as someone who has done much for his own community even when he was minister earlier, there is a question mark whether his being a labour minister would help the party in Karnataka.  

The last and most important person in Congress in the State for now who simply cannot be ignored is former deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has been waiting in the wings, disgruntled, disappointed, angry and anxious for the post of the opposition leader in the Assembly. The appointment is long overdue and any delay would cost the Congress not just the next election but also its future.

This is the time to wait and watch for the Kannadigas of how things are going to shape for the two national parties and their leaders in the State. To watch and conclude one day who made the most foolish move of them all. And the fool would dig his own grave. --INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)