Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Aug 3: Finally, the post-B S Yeddyurappa vacuum in Karnataka’s ruling BJP has been or rather will be filled in the next couple of days with the election of the ever-smiling former State party chief D V Sadananda Gowda as the next chief minister.
The 58-year-old non-controversial leader from the coastal region, who incidentally will be the second chief minister from the coastal region after M Veerappa Moily, will be sworn in on Thursday evening.
DVS, as Sadananda Gowda is commonly known by his initials, does not have any administrative experience. True, he has been elected as MLA twice and has now become Lok Sabha member for the second time, the first time being from Mangalore. He also has the distinction of serving as the deputy opposition leader under his rival Jagadish Shettar during 1999-2004 and has served as the State party chief from 2007-10 and led the party to victory in the 2008 assembly polls. He, incidentally, took over as the state BJP president after Yeddyurappa became deputy chief minister in the JD(S)-BJP coalition regime led by H D Kumaraswamy.
But the credit for catapulting the affable and dynamic leader from the coastal region to the coveted post should undoubtedly go to the outgoing chief minister, who as is widely known had to quit due to the indictment by the final report submitted by Lokayukta Justice N Santhosh Hegde on illegal mining.
It is an entirely different matter that Justice Hegde, who retired two days after forcing Yeddyurappa out of power, achieved what the powerful dissidents within the ruling BJP, who included the Bellary Reddy Brothers, the trio of Jagadish Shettar-K S Eshwarappa-Ananth Kumar and the combined Congress-JD(S) opposition, especially the sworn enemies of Yeddyurappa like JD(S) supremo and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and the State JD(S) chief and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, could not!
Yeddyurappa, who was forced to make an ignominious exit after successfully surviving several attempts to destabilise his ministry both from within the party and outside during the last 38 months, had made it a single-point agenda to install his chosen candidate in the hot seat to the point of almost setting it as a pre-condition for vacating the post.
Though he could not disobey the party high command’s directive to put in his papers, especially after BJP’s patriarch L K Advani made it clear that the Lokayukta-indicted chief minister should not be allowed to defy the central parliamentary board’s decision even at the risk of losing the party’s first-ever government in the south, despite all his blackmailing tactics, the success of Yeddyurappa in getting his preferred candidate chosen to the coveted post shows that he has won even though he has been vanquished. He has also announced plans to undertake a state-wide tour and has challenged the Lokayukta report by moving the High Court, indicating that it will be difficult to keep him under check or suppress him.
Thus, the elevation of DVS to the top-most post in the State is clearly Yeddyurappa’s victory given the fact that he successfully faced the combined might of former union minister and national general secretary Ananth Kumar, State BJP president K S Eshwarappa, a backward class Kuruba leader, and Jagadish Shettar, who belongs to the Veerashaiva or Lingayat community and R Ashok, the powerful Vokkaliga community leader, all of whom were contenders for the post.
Incidentally, Yeddyurappa’s success in getting his candidate elected is significant viewed in the backdrop of Ananth Kumar, Eshwarappa and Ashok making common cause and stepping aside in favour of Shettar to present an united front against DVS and thereby make the content as a fight between Vokkaliga versus Lingayat. In addition, the combined anti-Yeddyurappa faction also managed to wean away the Bellary Reddy Brothers and the 11-member group of the recently `qualified’ BJP MLAs led by former ministers Balachandra Jarkiholi-Anand Asnotikar. With such a formidable line-up ranged against him, Yeddyurappa managed to get his candidate elected by polling more number of votes in favour of Sadananda Gowda against Shettar.
That DVS will be facing tough challenges and is unlikely to have a smooth sailing in sharp contrast to the manner in which he was able to win in the present bout or his past experience of leading the state party unit during 2007-10 is evident from the fact that the Eshwarappa-Shettar-Ashok camp, backed by Ananth Kumar, has already decided to `boycott’ the swearing-in ceremony, according to party insiders. The refusal of Shettar to serve as deputy chief minister under DVS is considered as the first setback.
Though the Ananth Kumar-backed Eshwarappa-Shettar-Ashok camp, which reportedly secured 55 votes against the 62 votes of DVS out of the total strength of 121 BJP MLAs with many absentions, unofficial reports suggest that at least 30 MLAs were likely to keep aloof from the swearing-in ceremony. If the ruling party does not succeed in patching-up the differences, DVS will be starting his innings on a discordant note.
In addition to these problems, DVS will have to contend with back-seat driving or remote-control operations by Yeddyurappa, who has already told his trusted senior officials in his last meeting before leaving the chief ministership that he will be back in six months. The constitution of the ministry by accommodating the aspirants from different factions within the party, keeping out the four ministers indicted by the Lokayukta in the final report in illegal mining, and giving representation to all regions, castes and communities and keeping the ruling party united will be his biggest challenge.
Cleaning the stink caused by the scams and corruption charges against Yeddyurappa and many of the ministers, notably the Reddy Brothers, and providing a clean, transparent and good governance to win over the confidence of the voters would itself be a herculean task and need considerable administrative skills besides adroit political handling. He has made it clear that he will continue the developmental works launched by Yeddyurappa regime during the last 38 months and provide a people-friendly and pro-development rule.
Given the fact that the next assembly elections are due by May 2013, DVS will have limited time at his disposal. Of the remaining 22 months of the present term of the assembly, unless early elections become inevitable, the new chief minister will have to deliver in the next 12 to 15 months leaving aside the last 8 to 10 months for gearing up to face the electoral battle. That, of course, depends on whether he will be allowed to continue in power till then.