The appointment of a new president for the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee is unlikely to take place soon, with the top brass of the party keen on a detailed consultation at the highest level. A large section of Congressmen are of the view that any change at present should not disturb the caste combination with which the party scored a thumping victory in the last elections to the Legislative Assembly.
If the announcement on the appointment of K.C. Venugopal as general secretary in charge of Karnataka came as a surprise, the decision on whether to continue with the services of the incumbent KPCC president G. Parameshwara or replace him, is expected to take time. Incidentally, Dr. Parameshwara also holds the Home portfolio in the Siddaramaiah ministry and has been the head of the State Congress for nearly seven years (since 2010). He and Mr. Siddaramaiah led the party to a resounding victory in the 2013 Assembly elections and in the more recent, comfortable win in the byelections to the Nanjangud and Gundlupet Assembly seats.
In the last elections, the Congress went about with a Dalit-Backward classes combination as the key heads of the party in preference to a Lingayat or Vokkaliga (the two dominant communities in the State), and this enabled the party to garner the votes of the Muslims as well. At present, a large section of the rank and file of the party is of the view that the same combination should be continued. With there being no other Dalit leader, the party is left with little choice but to continue with Dr. Parameshwara.
Mr. Siddaramaiah, as is being stated, is however keen on a change of the president and is believed to have suggested the names of two north Karnataka Lingayat leaders — M.B. Patil (Minister for Water Resources) and S.R. Patil, who was a Minister until recently. The two others who are staking claim are the Energy Minister, D.K. Shivakumar, and the incumbent working president of the KPCC, Dinesh Gundu Rao. Caste considerations have played a major role in Karnataka, with most parties claiming to champion the cause of the socially and the economically backward classes.
The State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party is presently headed by the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. He will obviously consolidate the Lingayat vote bank and the same applies to the Janata Dal (Secular), which will do its best to garner the votes of the Vokkaliga community. It is therefore important for the Congress to focus attention on retaining its vote bank comprising the backward classes, the minorities and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
It is common knowledge that Mr. Siddaramaiah and Dr. Parameshwara do not see eye to eye, though both of them have played key roles in the victory of the party candidates in elections. However, a change of guard in the State unit, at the present juncture, may not augur well for the Congress, given the fact that Dr. Parameshwara is the only other Scheduled Caste leader in the party, apart from M. Mallikarjun Kharge. Though it claims to be a secular party, the Congress, like most other political parties, is also driven by caste considerations.
( The writer is Resident Representative, The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Bengaluru )
