Bangalore: Bitter 2012 for Karnataka After Scandalous Year

By V S Karnic

Bangalore, Dec 31 (IANS): Karnataka, which saw its image battered by scandals in 2011, enters the New Year with trepidation as ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) factional feuding seems set to worsen.

The slug fest among BJP factions over who should be the boss of the Karnataka unit, even if papered over by the party's central leaders, is expected to simmer as the year progresses because every passing day takes the state closer to assembly elections.

Polls to the 225-member assembly, that includes one nominated member, are due in April-May 2013. But it will not be a surprise if BJP central leaders also prefer advancing them as a way out to settle the leadership issue.

The opposition Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), though not in fine fettle themselves to face the elections, have stepped up the demand for early polls. They argue that going to people immediately is the best way to end "governance paralysis" in the state.

The BJP central leaders, busy as they are with Uttar Pradesh assembly elections to be held in February, are not likely to devote much time and energy to party's affairs in Karnataka though they had once hailed the state as the party's "gateway to rule south India".

The feud centres on B.S. Yeddyurappa's efforts to be re-instated as chief minister or be made state party chief or officially named as the one who will lead the party in the next elections.

Forced to leave the chief minister's post in July over corruption charges, Yeddyurappa apparently fears that he and his supporters will be marginalised as elections approach and may have little say in the selection of candidates.

To prevent such a possibility, he and his supporters have launched a major attack on the party's state unit chief K.S. Eshwarappa holding him responsible for all the troubles of Yeddyurappa.

Efforts of Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda to emerge out of the shadow of the former chief minister are only adding fuel to the factional feud. One of the conditions of Yeddyurappa to quit in July was that Gowda should be his successor.

BJP central leaders sending messages though Gowda and Eshwarappa to Yeddyurappa that he will have to wait till cleared of all charges to be re-instated as chief minister or to be made state party chief has further embittered the former chief minister.

Several ministers who are considered to be not involved in the factional feud, such as law minister S. Suresh Kumar, are publicly expressing their dismay at the developments in the state unit, describing them as "very unfortunate and embarrassing".

Another minister, Balachandra Jarkiholi, handling municipalities and local bodies, has urged four bigwigs of the state unit - general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar, Yeddyurappa, Eshwarappa and Gowda - to sit together and resolve their differences.

Two issues needing an early resolution also have the potential to widen the chasm between pro and anti-Yeddyurappa factions. First is naming a new Lokayukta (ombudsman) and the other is cabinet expansion.

The Lokayukta has been headless since Sep 19 when former Supreme Court judge Shivaraj V. Patil quit after over 45 days of assuming office following a row that he had acquired two house sites from cooperative societies in Bangalore violating rules.

Governor H.R. Bhardwaj has refused to accept Gowda government's nominee S.R. Bannurmath, former chief justice of Kerala High Court, as the new Lokayukta after he was alleged to have built a house in Bangalore on a site meant for civic amenities.

Bannurmath is believed to be Yeddyurappa's choice.

Yeddyurappa was removed as chief minister after the then Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde recommended his trial for corruption in the illegal mining scam.

In the state cabinet, whose strength now is 27 including the chief minister, there are seven vacancies. There are too many claimants and the choice of legislators for the posts will leave several aspirants disgruntled.

These none-too-rosy scenarios greet Karnataka which in 2011 became the first state in the country to see four former chief ministers making a beeline to the high court to quash cases of allowing illegal mining for financial gains.

Besides Yeddyurappa, the others are S.M. Krishna and N. Dharam Singh of the Congress, and H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD-S. The high court has stayed the probe in the cases and further hearing will resume in 2012.

News from the courts will also be eagerly awaited by several Karnataka politicians.

Former BJP minister, mining baron G. Janardhana Reddy, is fighting an illegal mining case in Andhra Pradesh. He has also been seeking bail as he has been in Hyderabad's Chanchalaguda jail since Sep 5.

Two other former BJP ministers - Katta Subramanya Naidu and S.N. Krishnaiah Shetty - are out on bail in corruption cases while two ministers, R. Ashoka, home, and Murugesh Nirani, industries, are under police scanner for alleged land grab.

The end of one year and the dawn of another does not seem to herald cheerful times for Karnataka as governance will vie with scandals, court cases, power games and possibility of early polls for government's attention.