Page 45 - English Tehelka Issue 5 - March 15, 2018

column politics

Karnataka: A stage to get

set for all upcoming polls

In light of upcoming elections in many states and the general election, both
Hard BJP and Congress are strategising well to win the Karnataka assembly poll
LIne whose results will have long-term implications

Anil Singh mminence of polls to the state forms such as Shaivism and linga wor-
assembly of Karnataka, sched- ship traditions, Jainism and Buddhism,
uled to be held in April or May bhakti and devotional sects and rich
The columnist is this year, has been instrumental folk-cults.
Executive Editor of in envisaging a flurry of hectic The early entry of UP chief minister
News24 news I political activity in almost all Yogi Adityanath into the electoral arena
channel. The views political parties in the state, especially is seen as part of the BJP’s strategy of
here expressed are the the BJP, Congress and JD(S). The JD(S) polarising Hindu votes. Apart from
author’s own has formed an alliance with BSP, NCP levelling charges of corruption against
and the Left parties, popularly called the Siddaramaiah and exhorting the peo-
Third Front, to contest the forthcoming ple to choose between “Commission
assembly polls. The Karnataka assembly Government” (Congress) and “Mis-
election is significant for all contesting sion Government” (BJP), the BJP is also • polls apart Modi visited Karanataka on Article 371 of the Constitution to ensure the Congress by cultivating farmers’
parties as it will determine the trends sharply focusing on its ‘Vikas’ mantra, February 27, the third time within a month that the demand for a separate state leaders.
in the approaching state assembly polls promise of change in northern Karnata- does not resurface, taken the battle
later this years as well as next years’ ka, and a vow to remove all constraints classes, the minorities and the poor. In straight to the BJP camp by making Third Front
general election. in Bengaluru to attain the status of a other words, the Congress is increas- Basava, founder of the Lingayat sect, Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) leader
megapolis. ingly veering round a package of values the icon of Karnataka, covertly stoking and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve
BJP Strategy Undoubtedly, the national leadership such as respect to religious commit- the popular demand of the Lingayats Gowda has entered into electoral alli-
The forthcoming assembly polls in of the BJP has claimed that the party ment, social justice and equality, and to be recognised as a separate religion, ance with BSP, NCP and the Left parties
Karnataka are significant for the BJP would win more than 150 seats in the human dignity as its mantras, without and ensured that the fallout of ripar- which it is touted as the Third Front —
because it had been in power in the state coming assembly elections in Karna- necessarily disowning secularism. ian conflicts does not boomerang on an anti-BJP, anti-Congress formation to
in the recent past, from 2008 to 2012. taka; nonetheless, some experts are Media reports make it discernible be tested in the political laboratory of
Some analysts feel that though win- skeptical about this claim in the wake that the Congress, under the leader- Karnataka in the forthcoming assembly
ning the state may not be very crucial to of internal fissures within the state unit ship of Siddaramaiah, has introduced polls. In view of the fact that both BSP
the BJP’s overall dominance at present, of the BJP unless much of the organisa- numerous schemes to alleviate distress, In Karnataka, and NCP have little or no presence in
losing it may affect its future in other tional work is entrusted to the RSS. waived small farm loans, regularised Karnataka, and that the JD(S) vote share
southern states of India. The BJP is fo- squatter holdings on government where religious in Assembly elections since 2004 has
cusing its entire attention on specifically Congress’s Prospects lands, and conferred title deeds on pluralism has often hovered around the 20 per cent mark,
targeting chief minister Siddaramaiah, A favourable verdict in the elections to the settlements of itinerant pastoral many experts feel that this political
rather than the Congress, because it is the Karnataka assembly is crucial for communities. It has also assiduously played truant to the arrangement is nothing more than
the popularity of this Congress leader the Congress, which has not won any cultivated symbolisms, conferring pub- homogenising call an alphabet soup and JD(S) leadership
that can prevent the juggernaut of BJP’s state election, barring Punjab, after 2014. lic recognition on heroes and saints, could hope only to damage the two
electoral victory. A victory here would help it capitalise and banning rituals that it has regarded of Hindutva, the national parties to the extent of forcing
One expert has opined that in a on it elsewhere, boosting its campaigns as superstitious and inappropriate to a hung Assembly in the state when it
state like Karnataka where religious in other states which go to the polls human dignity. Siddaramaiah has also BJP is projecting goes to the polls.
pluralism has often played truant to later this year. Congress is now making succeeded in keeping the Dalit flock Siddaramaiah The JD(S), apart from being short
the homogenising call of Hindutva, the efforts to forge a distinct social support together by balancing the representa- of star campaigners to woo the Dalit
BJP is projecting Siddaramaiah as being base across the country which entails tion of major Dalit castes. as being ‘anti- space, is also starving for funds. One
‘anti-Hindu’ and trying to polarise the overt recognition to religious belong- Siddaramaiah’s intervention on four Hindu’ and trying analyst has observed that undoubtedly,
electorate by playing the card of thick ing as a counterweight to the Hindutva fronts has been politically very savvy. the JD(S)-BSP-NCP alliance wears the
Hindu identity with a view to keep its agenda, reaching out to the farming He has kept the volatile Kannada lobby to polarise the mask of being an ideological tie-up
flock together in a religiously pluralistic community as a whole, and holding in good humour, utilised the addition electorate and a serious effort to indulge in social
state bequeathed with diverse religious forth as the champion of the backward of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region to engineering; however, in reality, it

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