The electoral alliance chalked out by the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) for the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka is unlikely to work to the satisfaction of most party leaders, be it the Congress or the JD(S), as much as the candidates who have been chosen by the leadership of the two parties, given the fact that the grass-roots level leaders have not appreciated the alliance in several of the constituencies, particularly those in the Old Mysore region.
By all indications, the alliance is more of an oral understanding than practical, with some of the candidates fielded by either of the two political parties having been sworn enemies of the rival camp for too long. Hence, it will only be natural that the alliance in several of the constituencies may not work to the advantage of the candidate concerned, and on the contrary, may even prove to be detrimental.
The current round of elections is expected to snowball into a clash between the two alliance partners if the results are not to expectations. A classic example can be that of Mandya where the JD(S) believes that it should be able to record a victory with a sizeable margin and the candidate in question is Nikhil Gowda, son of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Nikhil is the heir of the Chief Minister and the Deve Gowda family is keen that he records a victory in his very first outing on the electoral scene. This being the expectations of the family, it will only be natural for all the political forces ranged against the Chief Minister and the Deve Gowda family to have a direct aim at him and ensure his defeat. Mr. Kumaraswamy has already gone on record expressing his resentment over various developments after his son was nominated as the JD(S) candidate from Mandya.
This is only the beginning of the problems for the Congress-JD(S) alliance since only the seats for the first phase now stand finalised after the scrutiny and the nominations, and scrutiny for the second phase will be final only in the first week of April. If some of the Congress leaders do not see eye to eye with some of the JD(S) candidates in the Old Mysore region, it is vice versa in the other parts of the State where the Congress has fielded candidates and expects the JD(S) to extend support to them at the grass-roots level.
The BJP too has picked on some candidates without the local leadership being kept informed. Noteworthy among them is Tejasvi Surya for the Bangalore South seat. He has to obviously win over the support of the senior leaders who need to campaign for him and the kind of support that he can expect is anybody’s guess. The BJP in Karnataka is run by a small group of leaders and all of the partymen have to rally behind them.
The elections to the Lok Sabha may not be very relevant for local area development, but those elected from the constituencies of the State are regarded as important leaders of the party since they have easy access to the Central leaders. The ensuing election will go down in history for the very reason that new candidates are being tried out by all the three important political parties in Karnataka. To an extent, the focus therefore has extended to the younger generation.
( The writer is Senior Fellow , The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy )
