By taking on Deve Gowda, family, Siddaramaiah making life difficult for already-shaky JD(S)-Congress alliance.

When the Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress cobbled together a coalition government in Karnataka a month ago, Opposition leaders danced and sang paeans to their unity. From across India, a dozen leaders flew to Bengaluru to consummate the alliance. They exulted over a mahagathbandhan they claimed the alliance would herald to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party when India goes to polls in 2019.

Outgoing Congress chief minister Siddaramaiah and JD(S) head honcho HD Deve Gowda — long-time sworn enemies — hugged and smiled for the cameras. But few were fooled, and one question remained upfront: What would Siddaramaiah do after losing the chief minister’s post to Gowda’s son HD Kumaraswamy in an unexpected spin of fortunes?

Siddaramaiah answered that question on Sunday by way of a “leaked” video of his confabulations with a few Congress MLAs. In the clip —there is no reason to doubt its authenticity — he flings barbs at Kumaraswamy for deciding to present a full budget instead of a supplementary one and for going ahead with his promised waiver of farm loans. There is no need for both, according to Siddaramaiah, who says he had already presented the 2018-19 budget and waived farm loans to some extent. This is ample proof, if proof is needed, that the former chief minister is in a vile mood to take on the Gowda family once again to settle old scores.

In another video “leaked” on Tuesday, Siddaramaiah expressed doubts about whether the Congress-JD(S) coalition would last beyond the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

On his part, Kumaraswamy is not taking things lying down. He made it clear that nothing could stop him from presenting a full budget and waiving loans. “I am not at the mercy of anybody,” the Karnataka chief minister said.

In the taped conversations, Siddaramaiah was careful to not take potshots at Congress President Rahul Gandhi. He even advised MLAs against holding secret pow-wows against the party. This hints at the possibility that his camp may have deliberately leaked the tapes to make it clear that his quarrel, at least for the time being, is with Gowda’s “appa-makkala paksha” (father-son party) and not with the Congress high command.

Not easy to topple the government 

The BJP is not content with just enjoying the show from the sidelines. The grapevine is, once again, abuzz with rumours that the party is waiting to have another go at forming a government with defectors. After a quick visit to Ahmedabad to meet BJP chief Amit Shah, state unit president BS Yeddyurappa only said: “We’ll wait and watch.”

At least 14 Congress-JD(S) MLAs must resign from their seats for the government to fall, and that is not easy.

Things have not reached — not as yet at least — a stage where Siddaramaiah will round up enough legislators around himself to overthrow the government. But there is little doubt that he will make the government’s functioning anything but smooth. At least for some time, Kumaraswamy must live with the irony of facing trouble from Siddaramaiah, the very man whose job as the head of the Coordination Committee is to ensure the government’s smooth running.

Siddaramaiah’s enmity with Gowda is no ordinary affair. It’s of a feudal kind spanning decades, with deep-rooted loyalty turning into an intense hostility over time. As part of one janata avataror the other, Siddaramaiah had been Gowda’s trusted protégé for 20 years from 1985. A backward-class Kuruba, he had complemented Gowda’s credentials as an upper-caste Vokkaliga strongman.

Rahul’s clumsy handling

There is also little doubt that the mess that the Congress finds itself in is largely of Rahul’s making. Despite the drum-beating by Congress admirers and fake intellectuals of the Left-leaning kind who claim Rahul has developed into a mature politician capable of taking on Narendra Modi, he continues to suffer from an appalling lack of political understanding. From the start, his handling of the Karnataka affairs reeked of the clumsiness of a rookie.

To begin with, Rahul let Siddaramaiah run riot in the state with his so-called identitarian politics, ridiculous populist schemes and a bizarre move to make upper-caste Lingayats a seperate religious minority, none of which helped the party in the Karnataka elections. He even gave Siddaramaiah considerable freedom to choose election candidates. That now gives Siddaramaiah a little group of his own among the elected MLAs.

Slighted, Siddaramaiah hits back

Once the party lost the elections, Rahul nearly dumped Siddaramaiah, giving him only a minimal role in making key decisions, whether it was the matter of aligning with the JD(S) or the constitution of the government. Worse, a few of his supporters made it to the government.

Besides, by surrendering to every whim of Gowda, Rahul has jeopardised the future of many in the Congress, especially in the Old Mysuru region where both parties compete for the same vote bank.

Rahul perhaps patted his own back for the decision to make Siddaramaiah the head of the Coordination Committee and keeping him quiet, without realising that he was only giving him a nice platform from where he could throw tantrums.

Siddaramaiah is left with little choice now other than to make noise to embarrass the Gowda family and Rahul. Expecting him to nod his head and follow the leader at this stage amounts to living in a fool’s paradise.

9 Karnataka Congress MLAs to meet Siddaramaiah after video shows ex-CM doubtful about JDS-Congress alliance

The ruling alliance partners in Karnataka once again seem to be dogged by differences, as nine Congress MLAs are set to meet former chief minister Siddaramaiah who is also the head of the coordination committee of the Congress-JD(S) alliance government.

The meeting has ruffled feathers in the state political circles as it comes in the backdrop of a video clip, which featured Siddaramaiah purportedly expressing doubts about the longevity of the JD(S)-Congress government in the state.

In the video, which was widely covered by the regional media, Siddaramaiah can be heard speaking skeptically about the Karnataka government completing its full term. When someone asks him about completing five years, he purportedly says, “Five years… difficult… let’s see what will happen after the Parliament election (in 2019).”

“They (JDS-Congress) will remain until Parliament elections are over, after that, what all developments will happen (we will have to see),” he added.  While much is being said about the purported video, including a quick rebuttal from the JD(S) camp, similar sentiments were echoed by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy as well.

On 15 June, speaking to media about reports on both the parties struggling with the new alliance, Kumaraswamy hd said that no one can “touch” him, at least, till the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are over, but the usual reassurance of a full five-year-term was missing.

“This coalition government will function with stability. I know, no one can touch me for one year. I will be there at least for one year until the Lok Sabha election is over. Until then, no one can do anything to me,” he said.

Kumaraswamy earlier too had hinted about troubles in the alliance with his comments when he said that he was at the “mercy” of Congressand not the 6.5 crore people of Karnataka as his government had not received the full mandate, merely a week after taking the oath of office as chief minister.

Differences have emerged between the Congress and the JD(S) on a host of issues, including presentation of the budget. While Siddaramaiah is opposed to a full budget, the chief minister wants to go ahead with it. Former prime minister and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda had come on record to reject Siddaramaiah’s suggestions, while there were murmurs that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi backed Kumaraswamy on the issue.

Two days ago, another video had emerged where Siddaramiah was heard expressing his displeasure to a few Congress MLAs over presentation of a fresh budget, adding to the unease among the coalition partners.

Siddaramaiah, who had held the finance portfolio in the previous government, has recently said there was no need for a a fresh budget and insisted that a supplementary budget would do. Kumaraswamy, who holds the finance portfolio now, is scheduled to present his coalition government’s first budget on 5 July.

Meanwhile, after media picked up on these developments, Deputy Chief Minister and the Karnataka Pradesh Congress chief G Parameshwara was tasked with damage control.  “I have not seen it (video), when we reached an understanding (to form government); we had agreed to run the government for five years. We will run the government for five years,” Parmeshwara told reporters.

When repeatedly asked about Siddaramaiah’s purported comments, a visibly upset Parameshwara said, “I’m saying it…. if you repeatedly ask the same thing I will say the same. I’m saying it officially that we will run the government for five years. I’m saying it, I’m the party (state) President…what will happen in politics when, no one can predict, but we have agreed that we will run the government for five years.”

Even though Congress MLAs have been making a beeline to meet Siddaramaiah at Shantivana, Parameshwara did not see anything unusual in it. “What is wrong if we (MLAs from Congress) meet anyone from our party? Where is the confusion? There is no confusion at all,” Parameshwara said.

His comments come even as his government is facing the birth pangs of coalition politics, following the disquiet among newly elected Congress lawmakers who were left out during the Cabinet expansion.

Meanwhile Congress leader in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge said in New Delhi that he has seen the video and he would meet Siddaramaiah and ask him in what context he spoke in that manner.

“I will ask him in what context he said so. Or has it been presented in a distorted manner. Or is it a media creation to create animosity between people or whether  he has really stated so,” said Kharge.

He pointed out that the coalition government was forced to bring together secular forces to keep the BJP away from power. It was necessary for the Congress and the JD(S) to strengthen secular forces as much as possible, he said. He said the Congress high command was monitoring the developments and he would not comment more on this issue.

As the 12 May Assembly polls in the state threw up a hung Assembly, Congress and JD(S) who had bitterly fought each other, joined hands to form a post-poll alliance to keep out the BJP, which had emerged as the single largest party.