The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Major parties set to regroup

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Major parties set to regroup

S. Rajendran

Dissolution of the Assembly ends speculation on forming a new coalition

Majority of the wins in 2004 were by slender margin
Leaders hope for a decisive verdict in 2008

BANGALORE: The dissolution of the 12th Karnataka Legislative Assembly will put to rest apprehensions among political parties that there is scope for revival of the House.

Several political leaders of the State feared this might happen given the manner in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD-S) regrouped on October 27 to form yet another coalition government in the State under the leadership of B.S. Yeddyurappa.

The 2004 Legislative Assembly elections in the State is in many ways similar to the elections of 1983 when the Janata Party was swept to power and in less than six years, the party was in a shambles resulting in the fall of the S.R. Bommai Government.

The State had faced a similar political scenario with three governments taking charge in 41 months and the last one surviving a mere eight days.

It was thanks to the indecisive mandate that the State witnessed the formation of the first ever coalition Government in the State while in 1983 it was the formation of a first ever non-Congress Government.

If the Janata Dal (Secular) was able to pull off the first coalition government in alliance with the Congress, it was also in a way responsible for all the political drama witnessed in the State, initially in January 2006 when H.D. Kumaraswamy struck a deal with the BJP, and thereafter in October last when the party refused to hand over Chief Minister’s post to the BJP. The two parties again regrouped only to fall out again within a fortnight. But the BJP formed its first government in south India.

Diffident

All the three major political parties — the Congress, the BJP and the Janata Dal (S) — are diffident with politics plunging to low levels. The three parties are now working out strategies to face the people and the president’s rule is expected to enable them to recharge.

The 12th Legislative Assembly had nearly 105 first time members and Mr. Kumaraswamy was one of them.

Interestingly, nearly 80 per cent of the ministers in the S.M. Krishna Ministry lost in the elections and a majority of the MLAs had won by a slender margin. This partly explains way a majority of the MLAs wanted to avoid mid-term elections.

A cross section of the senior leaders of all the three major parties told The Hindu that they had never expected that there would be a hung Assembly in 2004 and a similar scenario could prevail again given the changing nature and expectations of the electorate.

That most politicians do not prefer a hung Assembly is another matter since they would like to take charge without much hassle.

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