By Mathihalli Madan Mohan
Can the success of Congress in Karnataka spells doom for the aspirations of Congress to retain power at the Centre?
This proposition may look ludicrous and atrocious too on the face of it. But the possibility cannot be ruled out by those who are aware of an unusual political tradition that has come to stay.
It has been seen over the years that a party in captures power in the state fails to do so at the Centre. It had happened when the Congress was in power at the Centre and the story was repeated when the NDA ruled Delhi. The fact of the matter has been that the people of Karnataka have not been able to get a sympathetic government in New Delhi. This is one of the causes for the for the state’s failure to get a good deal from the Centre.
It is not that the Congress strove to wrest the power at Karnataka. It is the internal wrangling of the BJP and the cavalier manner, in which its minister’s legislators busied themselves in amassing wealth, making no secret of their intentions, delivered the state on a platter as it were to the Congress, which was not prepared to assume the reins in the state. It is stated that the Congress won the election by default.
And incidentally, the developments in New Delhi, with the way the two Ministers namely Mr. Bansal and Ashwin Kumar the Railway and Law Ministers have landed themselves in soup of sorts, are pointers to the difficulties the Congress faces in realising his political dream.
Tell this to Congressmen in Karnataka, who are literally floating in cloud nine. All the euphoria gets dissipated in no time. Remarked a wag, as a matter, the Congress ought to have helped the BJP to retain power with a view to brightening the chances of the party retaining power in New Delhi.
