Dilemma more for voters than for political parties?
HUBLI, Sept, 26rd 2012
Karnataka has been virtually on an
election mood, ever since the tornado
Yeddyurappa, his misdeeds and political tantrums hit the political scene
for more than a year ago making it almost
impossible for any successor governments of the BJP survive. But the
party has gamely pulled on, notwithstanding the total collapse of the
administration. The day of reckoning dreaded by the political parties is drawing near at
last.
Now the question that is being discussed all over has
been what the fresh poll in the state
holds in store for the people who are
expecting a reasonably good government to carry on the affairs and the state of
preparedness on the part of the voters, the political parties concerned.
As for as the voters as a class are concerned, one third
of the electorate has been consistently staying away from poll with no
efforts made either by the election authorities or the political parties to
find out the reasons and take steps
to minimise the non-participation of the voters. This is
despite the fact that electorate itself has increased four crore mark, with the turn out in the
poll going up from 211 lakhs in 1994 to 261 lakhs in 2008.
The voters who showed a clear
inclination for Congress in the initial period for more than two and half
decades have veered away to become
more and more anti Congress in their political thinking. It has been
happening since 1983 when the states first non Congress government was formed
under the aegis of late Ramakrishna Hegde. In the six election held since then
Congress has won only twice, while the non Congress outfits including the JD
and BJP won four times, and that included two coalition governments, in one of
which the Congress was a partner.
A qualitative change occurred in the
scenario in the post 2008 election period. It has been that for the first time
in the history of the state, the Congress lost its primacy as the party which got
the highest voters support, notwithstanding the its success or failure in the
election. The BJP virtually galloped to nudge away the Congress from the
pedestal with a slight edge over the latter. A careful study of the voting pattern reveals
that the Congress has not been able to receive a single extra vote since 1999
despite the increase in the voters and turnout in the polls. It has remained
static since then.
The voters appear to be highly
politically polarised too, especially in the last two elections, with more than
90% of the polled votes being shared by the three parties, namely the Congress,
the BJP and the JDS leaving other parties and independents far behind. Among
the three parties, the Congress and the BJP lead, cornering 75% of the polled votes
in 2008 and 63% in 2004 elections. The last of the triumvirate the JDS stands far behind in the race
making it clear its inability to vie for the top honours and making
it clear it has only play a subsidiary
role and not a pivotal role in the state politics.
The point at issue for the 2013 elections would however be
whether there will be any clear let up in the anti Congress mood of the
electorate to the extent of putting the Congress in the saddle for the first
time since 1999.
Indications at the
moment are quite hazy and one can hardly hazard any guess on the mood of the
voters, who have always played their cards close to their chest. Or would the
voters throw away their hands in sheer disgust to allow a status quo of sorts
continued to put back the state in the mould of the coalition government once
again.
As for as the run-up of the parties,
and their preparations for the next hosting is concerned, the picture is quite
dismal. None of the three parties have shown that they can be trusted to
deliver goods. They have more negative than any positive points to offer.
Take for example the ruling BJP. Its
rise to political power is a recent phenomenon. It came into prominence after
the decimation of the Janata Dal experiment of a rise of the third force in the
state. As a matter of fact the BJP rose in power on the ashes of the united
JD. While the rump of the united JD
namely the Devegowda led JDS has not
been able to regain the ground lost by the parent party, the BJP built its
mansion, steadily galloping towards power in every election since 1999 to come to power on its own merit in 2008.
Everything appeared set for a long
reign of the BJP when Yeddyurappa assumed power as the first BJP Chief Minister
of Karnataka in 2008. The opposition was in shambles and there was none to
challenge his political hegemony either within the party or outside. The series
of by-elections engineered by the BJP through operation Kamala, established his
stature as the tallest political leader in Karnataka, who was assured of long
political innings in the foreseeable future.
But everything is in shambles today.
The BJP has lost total credibility among the people. The saffron government of
Karnataka, has proved to be worst ever government Karnataka had seen in its more
than five and half decades of history. Its ministers and legislators are more
interested in making hay rather than serving people to turn Karnataka into a
cess pool of corruption of unprecedented dimensions. From the way the skeletons of different dimensions
on land denotification, illegal mining and its ilk are tumbling down the BJP cupboard,
it looks as if the ministers of the government were only interested in lining
their pockets rather than govern the state. Corruption is openly encouraged by
government in myriad ways and the typical example has been the manner in which
the government has deliberately made the Karnataka LOkayukta, the potent instrument
for fighting corruption dysfunctional. Under one or the other pretexts it has
kept the Lokayukta post vacant for nearly year stymeing its all activities.
And all this has been brought about
by one single man, Yeddyurappa, who went to
electorate in 2008 election with folded hands imploring them to give “chance to BJP” to
govern the state. The electorate would not have responded had they had any idea
this was the type of government he wanted to provide.
He has proved to be the wrecker in
chief of the BJP. When he had no option but to quit in the light of the
Karnataka Lokayukta report, he was hell bent on seeing that the successor
governments led by his own chosen cronies namely Sadanand Gowda and Shettar
also do not succeed,. He desired that he would run the state in their name, when
Sadananda Gowda did not kowtow his line; he got him mercilessly removed and
brought Shettar, who has proved to be a typical “His Masters Voice”. Even with
a subservient Chief Ministers, Yeddyurappa has been behaving more like an
opposition leader than a mentor to needle his own party government. He berates
his own party government like nobody’s business
`` Two more aspects of the personality
have come to light. One has been his penchant to keep his personal interest
above the party and painting himself bigger than the party himself. His lust for power. He has absolutely no sense of remorse over
mounting corruption. He has gone to the
extent of blackmailing his own party high command, which has steadfastly
refused to given in to his tantrums. And the third has been the manner in which
he has been playing the caste card in an unabashed manner and has outwitted the
peer, Mr Devegowda, who has always loved to play Vokkalinga card to serve his political
interest. In a way Yeddyurappa has gone a step ahead in practicing the craft.
In the coming elections, the BJP in
Karnataka faces a dilemma. It is totally divided house. From top to bottom,
everybody has lost credibility. The party is damned if it gives to Yeddyurappa
and is more damned if it does not. He is going to hurt the parties prospects either
way if he in or out? Only the extent of
the damage likely to be caused needs to watched
Can the Congress replace BJP as a
ruling party in the coming hustings? The situation is ripe but the party is
not. It has also been hit by crisis of leadership thoroughly. It has at the state of level, bunch of
politicians who call themselves as leaders but have no leadership qualities?
They are all stuck by the crabs in the jar syndrome, where no crab would allow
the other to go up. As an opposition party, it has failed totally. Barring issuing
statements from Bangalore
As explained earlier, the JDS is in
capable of staging a comeback as a main line party because of its limited
influence and its inability to carve out base outside especially in Northern Karnataka . It is destined to be subsidiary party. It has like the other two has not bothered to
articulate on the grievances of the people. The patriarch of the party Devegowda
has no energy to lead the party. His son and heir apparent Kumaraswamy, has not
been able to build himself up in the eyes of public. Kumaraswamy had emerged as
a younger leader with promise when he headed by JDS BJP coalition. But the manner,
in which he reneged on his promise to hand over the power as agreed upon to
BJP, has cost him his credibility. He is under the mistaken impression that
indulging in diatribe day and in day out would fetch him votes.
Under the circumstances, it is voters of Karnataka, who have a bigger
dilemma on the choice of the parties,
rather than the political parties in
garnering support.
The choice for the voters is really
difficult. They are required to choose
between the BJP, which has proved to be totally incompetent and unscrupulous
and the Congress, which is insipid dull and morose Between them is placed the
JDS, which is a political dwarf. It is
difficult for the voters to suddenly give up the anti Congress stance and
equally more difficult to embrace the Congress.
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