File Picture Courtesy : The Indian Express
It’s a pale end to a three day long action packed political thriller. The Karnataka saga, with the protagonists displaying their acts to perfection and the sequences changing every minute, don’t forget the midnight courtroom battle, kept the nation on the edge of excitement. It will be long remembered, not for the messy and bizarre politics displayed by political parties, but the stellar role of the Supreme Court of India in upholding the spirit of constitutional values.
For the time being, as it seems, BS Yeddyurappa’s wish to rule the state for one final time, has been dashed. It was palpable from his sombre mood before he resigned from the CM’s gaddi, just ahead of the floor test in the Karnataka assembly.
As expected, the Congress-JD (S) leaders exulted in their triumph. However, considering that politics is a funny game that springs funnier surprises- and let’s not forget it’s a fractured mandate- another round of drama could unfold in Karnataka, anytime in the future. The game has just begun; the end is far off though.
For both the National parties-Congress and BJP- Karnataka elections was absolutely critical, while it was the last bastion for the Congress, post split with N Chandra Babu Naidu’s TDP in Andhra Pradesh, the saffron party had pinned all hopes on Karnataka, as its gateway to south. JDS’ survival heavily depended on the state poll results. That’s why it was well known that JD (S )as well as both the national parties would try to conquer it, at any cost. What happened, post the results, was not, entirely, unexpected.
Whether the BJP leaders agree or not, (may be) the party leadership was, either, over confident of securing absolute majority, or didn’t imagine that, Rahul Gandhi’s party could ever outsmart it. The BJPs confidence, stemmed from its past performance in state after state where it just eliminated Congress.
Even, in Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur- in all these states, the Amit Shah led party- though short of majority with lesser number of seats from its arch (political) enemy (Congress) formed the governments thanks to its swift manoeuvring. In Karnataka, the final tally of 104 seats, seemed to have left the BJP in a shock, however, the joining of hands between the Congress and JD (S) well before the last ballot was counted, was, perhaps, just beyond its imagination.
Having formed an alliance with the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir, it should have predicted that in the eventuality of a fractured mandate, the Congress-JD(S) could come together. For, the lust for power is supreme and that’s why, as they say, politics, make strange bedfellows.
Aware and convinced that it lacked the magic numbers, BJP should have opted to sit in the opposition and waited for its opportunity to turn the tables, given that the alliance between Congress and JD(S) was built on the spur of the moment and driven by sheer opportunism, and such partnerships, have all the chances of developing cracks, sooner than later.
Such a move, would certainly, have been a dignified stance. Instead, the party that proudly claims itself, as ‘a party with difference’, did everything, Congress used to do in its heydays. Congress has had a rich history of fiddling with the constitutional values, but by aping the oldest party’s wrongful practices, how can the BJP claim or take pride for being ‘different’ ?
