Bangalore: Winless Congress in No-win Situation in the State
Ramakrishna Upadhya/Deccan Herald
Bangalore, Jan 6: The Karnataka Congress leaders, led by KPCC Chief R V Deshpande have begun a manthan baithak to identify the areas where the party went wrong in the recent byelections, but they will not find any easy answers.
The near-complete debacle that the Congress suffered in the byelections, failing to win even one seat, has put the State leadership at its wit’s end on how to revive the party’s fortunes before the crucial Lok Sabha elections likely to be held in April-May this year.
The results of byelections for eight Assembly seats – three of which had been won by the Congress just seven months ago – clearly demonstrates that the grand old party is skidding downhill rapidly and is in danger of being relegated to an inconsequential third position, unless remedial measures are taken at the earliest.
Congress, which considered Karnataka as one of its strong bastions for decades, now faces its worst ever crisis, the party high command has to take a major share of the blame. After losing the 2004 Assembly elections, it has stumbled from one strategic failure to another in search of a ‘formula’ which could bring back the voters who have been deserting the party in droves.
The Congress achieved a coup of sorts in July, 2006 by attracting Siddaramaiah and his supporters to the party. As acknowledged mass leader, Siddaramaiah could have mobilised backward class voters, both in northern and southern parts of the state. But, with the ‘established leaders’ of the party making sure that an ‘outsider’ like him is not given any importance so far, a frustrated Siddaramaiah is on the verge of quitting Congress, which is not a good news for the party just before Lok Sabha polls.
The muddled thinking is also evident in the way former Chief Minister S M Krishna has been treated in the party. He was made to resign as governor of Maharashtra to bring him back to active politics just before the last Assembly elections, but the party seemed to develop second thoughts midway through the campaigning, leaving Krishna high and dry.
The byelection results would indeed make the Congress high command worry about its prospects in the Lok Sabha elections. Having failed to identify a credible state level leader who can win a sizeable chunk of the 28 seats at stake, the Congress may end up doing what it has tried to avoid all this while --approaching the JD(S) for an alliance -- knowing fully well that it it the JD(S) which will be the principal gainer.