After five days of hectic lobbying and high tension drama in Bangalore, the location of “ Nataka of Karnataka” shifted to Delhi today as various groups started reaching since morning itself to please appropriate their ‘God fathers’ to ensure ministerial berths for themselves in Siddaramaiah Cabinet.
Karnataka Chief Minister reached Delhi this afternoon and he told the media persons after meeting Congress President that he “would expand his cabinet within 2/3 days and get people with good image”.
That has already started sending shivers down the spine of a few hopefuls whose political past has not been too pleasant and they have started wondering what would happen to their fate.
Even before karnataka Chief Minister could meet the Congress President today, KPCC President Dr G Parameshwar had already landed and handed over a list of at least five future ministers of his choice to 10 Janpath for which he was apparently reprimanded and reminded that there was no need for him to come up with a separate list when Siddaramaiah was already on the way to Delhi for the same purpose. The High command was expecting both of them to come together and then seek approval of the Congress president on the list of Ministers. But the KPCC President jumped the gun yet again and continued his game of one-upmanship vis a vis Siddaramaiah.
It is very well known in political circles of karnataka that both Dr Parameshwar and Siddharamaih have been at logger heads and they would not even take the same flight to come to Delhi to meet the Congress President. KPCC President’s aides also gave the impression that Dr Parameshwar lost assembly polls in Koratagere because of the party leaders did not work for him and actually, his loss was a part of design to ensure Siddaramaiah’s victory.
There may or may not be enough truth in this speculation or allegation because the JD(S) Candidate Sudhakar Lal was a very powerful opponent who not only enjoyed the support of Banjara and powerful Nayaka community in the area, he also got enough Kuruba and Vokkaliga votes in his kitty. KPCC President lost this seat by a margin of 18000 plus votes despite the fact that neither HD Deve Gowda nor HD Kumaraswamy even stepped into Koratagere to campaign for Sudhakar lal. Ironically, Dr Parmeshwear started trailing from the very first round of counting and did not recover even at the 16th round.
Yet he has not given up the hope of becoming at least Deputy Chief Minister and his supporters even managed to send a Kissan delegation to meet Mrs Gandhi yesterday with the plea that he should be compensated for the sacrifice he did for the Congress party. A few senior Congress leaders from Delhi who were in charge of karnataka have not been apparently very pleased with Dr Parmeshwar and his team of ‘kitchen Cabinet Commanders’ including prof BK Chandrashekhar, BL Shankar, Nazeer Ahmed, MC Venugopal all of them lost their respective assembly seats. Now, it appears quite unlikely that he would be allowed to continue on this post for long because the Congress high command has to draft a fresh team to galvanize the party keeping the forthcoming Parliamentary polls in mind.
Siddaramaiah, on the other hand, does not want to take any blame on his head because even one wrong step on his behalf would set the ‘blame game’ ball rolling because he came into Congress just 7 years ago. That is why he has played safe and tossed the ball in the High command’s court. He was quite measured and in fact, even cryptic in his interaction with media persons in Delhi today.
For many congress leaders and hopefuls however, this victory is being seen as a bonanza and they are trying every trick in the book to grab whatever slice of power and whatever it takes for that. That explains the mela of almost 75 plus Congress MLAS camping in Delhi today. But even more astounding and bizarre is the fact that that a few defeated candidates are aspiring to occupy positions of power while those party workers who have worked for several years are disappointed and are raging with anger. Lok sabha elections are hardly a few months away and whatever political power is shared should be a judicial mix between the original congress men and who came from other parties but their antics continues ad nauseum…
For example, BL Shankar who remained one of the key members of the team of both HD Deve Gowda and SM Krishna in the past also managed to be in the core team of Dr Parmeshwar and now wants to occupy the post of either Political Secretary or Special representative in Delhi even after losing Peenya Dasarhalli seat. His plea is that he is better connected in delhi even today and he would be in a position to do better than what V Dhananjay kumar would have done for BS Yeddyurappa during the BJP regime.
The same is the case of former Union Minister CM Ibrahim who knows Siddaramaiah since his Janata Dal days and enjoys very good personal rapport with him. Despite strong opposition from AICC General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry and Luizinho Falerio, it was Siddharamaih who made sure that Bhadrawati seat was given to Ibrahim even at the cost of removing the sitting Lingayat MLA Sanghameshwar. As expected, Ibrahim remained on the third position and yet he is aspiring to become the political secretary of the karnataka Chief Minister now. Ibrahim may have the gift of the gab and he could regale the crowd with quotes Basavanna’s vachanas, Ramayana and Mahabharata. He often quotes the instance of “ Dhritarashtra appige”. But he has hardly been taken seriously by the Karnataka electorate and his rivals have already started saying that “ Ibrahim’s appointment as Political secretary would be like Dhritarashtra Aalingane” for Siddaramaiah.
In this race, Prof BK Chandrashekhar too is not lagging behind. He was one of the blue eyed boys of Ram Krishna Hegde preaching’ value-based politics’ and added his own benchmark value to Congress party by becoming the friend philosopher and guide of Dr Parmeshwar for a long time and he was rewarded with Basavanagudi ticket where he lost miserably yet again. According to some Congress leaders, Prof Chandrashekhar is keen on becoming the Deputy Chairman of Karnataka State Planning Board.
So, is Prof K E Radhakrishna (who has been the official Biographer of HD Deve Gowda and was inducted into Congress party some time ago as the KPCC Spokesperson) want to become Deputy Chairman of State Planning Board. Radhakrishna joined the party only a month ago and was made a spokesman by Dr Parameshwar and this is because of the gravitational pull of mother tongue between Oscar and him..
Interestingly, the above mentioned politicians are in a bigger hurry to lap whatever comes their way at the cost of those loyal and dedicated congress party workers and legislators who have won elections more than four to five times and have been watching the whole drama from the sidelines. On the other hand, there is a palpable sense of outrage and resentment among the loyal Congressmen in Bangalore who want the Congress party High command to give opportunity to good and credible people in the Siddaramaiah cabinet.
What is all the more funny about the mindset of a few karnataka politicians is that they want to measure up every political decision with regard to the government in the balance of “caste, district and regional basis”. They are not yet prepared to believe that “good governance” is possible only beyond these artificial barriers and only “credible and competent people” should be given such responsibility. Some of them still believe that “government and governance’ is like a Masheer fish from Cauvery which has to be equitably distributed among a few households because of the fear of any rancor or bickering.
It is here that the Congress High command has to take utmost care to ensure that any political favors should be given to those who have put in minimum three years of constructive work and not because of the proximity to the leaders and whoever has contested should continue to work in the respective constituency for 5 years and vigorously work for the coming Lok sabha elections.
The Congress party High command would have to put its foot down on the display of Press Notes issued at the behest of KPCC by a few Congress leaders who have been making public appeals to make Dr Parameshwar the Deputy Chief Minister and CM Ibrahim as the Political Advisor to the Chief Minister. It has to send a stern message to all those people that the Congress party has been given the mandate by the people of Karnataka for the good work and usher in a new era of goodwill and wellbeing of the party than otherwise.
Such kind of jostling and jockeying and internal quibbling would only lower the image of the party and create more dissent and dissensions from within because even one WRONG move at this juncture would have a cascading impact over the future.
Karnataka at the moment is at a cross roads where many things would have to be set right. The people’s expectations have risen like Fahrenheit during the last few days and the Chief minister would need a team of credible and competent people at various levels not only to stem the rot but also establish its own bench mark. That is going to be a Herculean task and he would have to take some hard choices and take many hard decisions without any fear or favor. Only then, he would be in a position to deliver. It remains to be seen what choices Siddaramaiah makes and what he is being offered by the High command. (Posted on May 15, 2013 @ 10.40pm)
(Ajay Jha is a Commentator and Independent Writer and Analyst on Politics, security and Economy of South And West Asia. His email id is: Ajay N Jha <ajayjha30@gmail.com>)
