The bypolls to 15 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka, which will have a bearing on the stability of the BJP government, are also being watched with curiosity for the ideological switches all parties have witnessed and their impact.
While the bypolls have been necessitated precisely because MLAs from the Congress and the JD(S) switched sides after being disqualified to contest on the BJP ticket, five leaders from the BJP too have gone out of the party fold to contest either independently or on the ticket of opposition parties.
This is in addition to the innumerable number of leaders at the grass-roots level switching sides. In all, 22 MLAs/former MLAs or those who had earlier unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls on the ticket of major political parties have crossed floors ahead of these bypolls. Some of them have been expelled from all the three parties.
“Such is the intensity of party-hopping that political ideology has become topsy-turvy. We have now a strange concoction of all ideologies put together,” said a strategist from the BJP. Already, the 18-member ministry headed by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has 10 members who have their political roots in either the Janata Parivar or the Congress.
‘Original’ cadre’s concern
With the Chief Minister saying that all the 15 disqualified MLAs would get ministerial berths if they win, the “original” BJP cadre is concerned that “outsiders” will have a major share in the 34-member ministry. A joke doing the rounds in BJP circles is that the government has become “Bharatiya Janata Congress Dal” by including leaders from rival camps in a big way. But what has stunned many is that political ideologues such as A.H. Vishwanath, who used to espouse socialist principles and vigorously oppose the BJP, too have done a volte-face. Interestingly, despite being a small party, the Janata Dal (Secular) has accounted for prominent defections. Two of the three Deputy Chief Ministers in the BJP government are from its stables.
Image of parties
Another key strategist in the BJP said such political defections have become a part of political strategy of late as the real aim of any party is to capture power. He, however, admitted that such massive defections are belittling the image of politicians, especially elected representatives, among people. “Political defections may be tolerated by leaders as it helps them. But our cadre is definitely getting de-spirited as the nature of the party organisation too changes with such massive defections,” he said.
A grass-roots level functionary joked about the plight of the defectors, “All the stakeholders are getting used to defections in the present-day power politics. But I pity the defectors as they have to change their discourse and be very careful about what they say during the poll campaign so that they do not embarrass themselves and the political parties they are currently with.”
