Preparations for the next round of the Legislative Assembly elections, due in May 2018, are picking up with the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party announcing certain strategic decisions that should pave the way for unity among the rank and file at the grassroots level. The BJP has gone a step further in announcing that the State unit president, B.S. Yeddyurappa, is also the chief ministerial candidate, which means that all his detractors have been silenced in one shot.
The intra-party differences within the State BJP had been out in the open for several months, and the dissenting group is led by the former Deputy Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa, who is presently the leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council.
It is not that Mr. Eshwarappa is seeking to lead the BJP in the ensuing elections but it is apparent that all that he wants is a certain quota of party ticket to his well-wishers. On the contrary, Mr. Yeddyurappa has not merely sought to curb his influence within the party but has also virtually dashed his hopes of obtaining ticket to contest the elections. Mr. Eshwarappa had lost the last Assembly elections and was thereafter given ticket to contest the Legislative Council election.
Evidently to call the shots, Mr. Eshwarappa has raised the Sangolli Rayanna Brigade to mobilise the support of the backward classes and Dalits, although in reality the brigade is being run to serve as a parallel set-up to the party, perhaps to browbeat Mr. Yeddyurappa. Similar to the manner in which the Namo Brigade was merged with the BJP during the run-up to the Parliamentary elections, the onus is now on Mr. Eshwarappa to merge the Rayanna brigade with the State BJP.
Now that the BJP president, Amit Shah, has announced the role for Mr. Yeddyurappa, it is obvious that it is a direction to Mr. Eshwarappa to either fall in line or go his way.
If the Congress is seeking to retain power, the BJP is keen on wresting power which it badly yielded to the Congress since it was unable to put up a stiff contest in the last elections. All eyes are therefore focused on the unity in the BJP and that semblance of unity is still a distance away. The need for unity between Mr. Yeddyurappa and Mr. Eshwarappa, who hail from Shivamogga district, is very much required for the BJP to achieve its goals.
It is different in the Congress though and the intra-party differences are not much visible to the common man.
The latest announcement that G. Parameshwara will continue as president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee for a third term and Mr. Siddaramaiah will lead the Congress in the campaign for the Assembly elections has not really come as a surprise, given the fact that the ruling party is keen on going ahead with the same caste combination which gave it the thumping victory in the last elections. The Congress central leadership has gone a step further in announcing a working president (S.R. Patil) to oversee the party work in north Karnataka and another for the southern districts (Dinesh Gundu Rao). The appointment of D.K. Shivakumar as chairman of the Campaign Committee is also an important step which will help the Congress in effectively drawing the attention of the electorate.
(The writer is Resident Representative, The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Bengaluru)
