BJP makes its moves; Congress waits and watches

The summer of 2028 may still be a good distance away for the next polls to be held in Karnataka. Yet, this southern state is a tad different from four of its neighbours. It is among the four across India where the Congress party is in power and like the other three, has a very strong opposition party (read BJP) challenging it constantly on all aspects of its governance and policy making. Recovering quite noticeably after the massive drubbing it received in 2023, the saffron party, perpetually in election mode has currently kept itself in the public eye and managed a presence of its own in the circles that matter. The recent MLC elections held all over the nation had a specific point of interest in Karnataka where the GOP lost all four seats to the NDA combine of BJP and JD(S). While Modi taunted his rival in a social media post, Kannada leaders indicated that the Congress was on its way out as the public is very upset with the way governance has gone for a toss.

With the likely exit of BJP state chief Vijayendra soon as he has completed his three-year tenure, reports are afloat that there will be a shift of power from the Yediyurappa family to the bigger base of newcomers and recent entrants from Congress and JD(S). Taking care not to upset the local big boss Yediyurappa, there has been speculation that one of his two sons may be accommodated in the Union cabinet to maintain the balance. D K Shivakumar, the present CM who has maintained a momentum of administration and a continuity with his predecessor Siddaramaiah’s policy decisions by and large, is not too comfortable with the jolts that the party has received with the MLC polls. While his partymen pooh-pooh the stand-alone challenge of the BJP and assert that JD(S) will stand to gain better this time around, the ongoing tug-of-war on the ‘sting operation’ concerning the ex-CM has kept rumour mills churning in the state. For BJP, which has kept the ally led by Deve Gowda in good humour and for obvious reasons, the brightest chance of hitting the high spot in southern India remains with this state alone. A random report floated a few weeks ago had even projected that BJP and its allies would bag nearly 150 seats out of 224 if elections were held immediately.

While this can still be dismissed as wishful thinking, the continuing support for BJP despite its caste-driven schisms, upset senior leaders and expelling of a few dissidents who were unhappy with the current BJP state leadership are still areas of concern. The only relief for them is that their rivals, known for peak dissidence in their ranks too, are not presenting a united picture. The SIR exercise in Karnataka didn’t generate as much excitement as it was expected to, despite Rahul Gandhi making it a national issue to protect the rights of whom he thought were being deprived.

While the state leadership is aware that in the last two decades, things have never been comfortable for them as far as poll wars go, the need for them to watch out for increased aggression from the saffronites is another source of anxiety which is building up, time and again.

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The Hans India