Change in Bengaluru

If the Dharam Singh government saw the approaching train wreck, it surely didn?t seem to do much to get out of the way.

If the Dharam Singh government saw the approaching train wreck, it surely didn’t seem to do much to get out of the way. With the Congress-JD(S) alliance left with no firm numbers to stand on after a faction of the Janata Dal (Secular) broke away to tie-up with the BJP, it seems that the rug has already been pulled from under the Karnataka government’s feet. But the impending collapse of the government is more than just the result of a Bimaru-style ‘hop-off-a-party, hop-on-to-another’ politics. For leading the JD(S) rebels is H.D. Kumaraswamy, the son of JD(S) leader H.D. Deve Gowda. While Deve Gowda makes a public display of anguish, there may be more than some sense in the thesis that he is covertly responsible for the fission in the JD(S) and the tear in the Congress-JD(S) alliance.

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The former PM has always kept the flicker of his anti-Congressism alive through various gestures, the most recent being the quiet support to Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh’s campaign against governmental phone taps. But as the name of his party clearly suggests, it is impossible for him to befriend the BJP without destroying his secular credentials. Thus goes the thesis, using his son as a front to challenge the Congress.

For those familiar with the micro-mechanics of coalition politics, this incident looks incredibly like the shenanigans of the BSP in UP. But while coalition politics is here to stay — a fact that the Congress is still in the process of accepting — the breakaway JD(S) should be wary of ‘overreach’. Mayawati may have had few qualms in double-crossing ‘suvarna’ parties after striking deals with them, but over the years she has boxed the BSP into a corner without any allies potential or otherwise. No one should know this better than the BJP as it gets ready to grasp the new alliance and make its first real entry into governance in South India. Karnataka BJP leader S. Yediurappa should hope that he is not going into a power deal on the lines of the notorious BJP-BSP experience in UP. For in the end, coalition-building is not only about the ‘number game’, but also about the ‘naturalness’ of two political parties joining hands. Apart from the anti-Congress glue, there is little in common with the BJP and the party headed by Mr Kumaraswamy. Which means that JD(S) — both factions represented by père and fils — could be gifting the BJP a Trojan horse.