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Political circles abuzz after CM calls on former mentor Gowda
Bengaluru As chief minister Basvaraj Bommai on Sunday met Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda in Bengaluru as a courtesy to his former mentor but the decision, in the middle of the intensifying political drama over the formation of the cabinet, has raised the possibility of using the family-run party as a stabiliser of sorts should the situation turn rocky with simmering dissent boiling over in the coming days within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an analyst who didn’t want to be named said
Bengaluru As chief minister Basvaraj Bommai on Sunday met Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda in Bengaluru as a courtesy to his former mentor but the decision, in the middle of the intensifying political drama over the formation of the cabinet, has raised the possibility of using the family-run party as a stabiliser of sorts should the situation turn rocky with simmering dissent boiling over in the coming days within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an analyst who didn’t want to be named said.
JD(S) has 32 legislators in the lower house, the BJP has 118 and the Congress has 68. While in the Upper House, the BJP has 32, the JD(S) has 12 and the Congress has 29 members.
While the obvious reasons are that the BJP needs the JD(S) for smooth passage of bills and consolidate their support bases in the upcoming Zilla and Taluk Panchayat elections apart from other urban local body polls, including Bengaluru corporation, the analyst cited above said that the reasons are more than what meets the eye.
One is this is BS Yediyurappa’s way of challenging the high command and keeping control over the state. “They are putting together an alliance which asserts local power over the high command,” said one Bengaluru-based political analyst, requesting not to be named.
The analyst said that despite the change in personalities “those who control power are the same”, referring to Yediyurappa, Gowda and Siddaramaiah.
The JD(S) and the BJP have a very good working relationship, especially since the two parties consider the Congress as its common enemy, stitching local alliances in several regions of the state to tip the scales in its favour.
But this is the party position but the personalities operate in a rather contrasting manner, observers said.
A Narayana, political analyst and faculty at the Azim Premji University uses marketing language to state that the two parties are “hedging their bets”.
Narayana said that if it was just a courtesy meeting then Bommai missed meeting SM Krishna, who is more senior to Gowda and with the BJP.
n the unlikely event of this (cabinet formation) leading to some serious problem where several prominent senior leaders do not figure, this move (of stitching up an alliance with Gowda) is to state how they can keep the government going,” Narayana said.
Unlike other states, where leaders of major parties barely see eye-to-eye, Karnataka’s turbulent politics has rested on local coalition building at least in the last two decades where the likes of BS Yediyurappa, Siddaramaiah and HD Deve Gowda have maintained healthy personal working relationships to remain relevant and aren’t hesitant to call for personal or political favours from time-to-time.
The three have firmly resisted the “interference” by Delhi into Karnataka’s affairs as a way to keep control over a state.
The cabinet expansion will force some legislators to lash out for being left out and the future of the turncoats, who engineered the collapse of the HD Kumaraswamy-led coalition government and backed Yediyurappa to power, hinges on a thin and uncertain thread.
“We and this government, when it comes to crisis, we will give them our support,” Gowda said in Bengaluru on Sunday after his meeting with Bommai.
Bommai was with the Janata Dal and later with Janata Dal (Secular) and even served as its deputy leader of the opposition in the legislative council from 2000 to 2004.
But his personal equation has little to do with the meeting, people aware of the developments said, as it remains a show of strength and outreach to a party leader who has played “kingmaker” for over two decades now.
Gowda(89) has remained central to the political discourse in Karnataka--and the country--over the last three decades, tactically maneuvering every hurdle that has come his way by stitching up alliances with both national parties to keep his party not just afloat but thrive.
Gowda and the JD(S) also have almost the full backing of the dominant Vokkaliga community, believed to be the second largest caste group after the Lingayats, which firmly backed the regional outfit in the 2018 assembly elections after nursing a feeling of neglect under Siddaramaiah-led Congress rule from 2013.
Analysts add that though BJP leaders rush to Delhi during any crisis situation, the last thing they want is for the Centre to dictate terms which has effectively “decentralised” power in Karnataka which is very different from how the saffron outfit operates in other parts of the state.
Yediyurappa has rarely ever pushed for Hindutva and has based his entire politics on caste-based reservations, making it easier for him to use this card to get the powerful and influential Mathas or monasteries to his side, which no leader with all the backing of even the central leadership is likely to challenge, people aware of the developments said.
