After six days of intense deliberations, negotiations and bargaining, the Congress high command picked Siddaramaiah as the chief minister of Karnataka, a decision which could have been taken after the first session of the newly-elected legislators once the results were announced last Saturday. Given the history of the party leadership messing up smaller crises and its knack of snatching defeats from the jaws of victory in several states, those who had voted for the party in Karnataka would have had their hearts in their mouths in the intervening period.
Their only solace would have been the high number of seats the party got in the election, giving the BJP very little space for rolling out its ill-conceived and undemocratic experiment called “Operation Lotus”.
There were too many permutations and combinations that worked in the party’s favour in the state. They included both policy matters and administrative measures. The Karnataka leadership has had the nerve to be seen unequivocal against the BJP’s overtly communal agenda; and the government will have to show it on the ground that it means business. Key among the promises is to take on the trouble-makers who masquerade as protectors of faith head on. The government should ensure that none is spared from the watchful eyes of the law when they seek to poison the minds of the people with their short-sighted communal agenda. The government has very little option but to act, and be seen to be acting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been vocal against political parties offering freebies to garner votes but the Congress’ win in Karnataka has a lot to do with them, as some surveys have indicated. Among them are the five major promises — 200 units of free electricity to every household; Rs. 2,000 to every woman head of a family; 10 kg rice a month to every member of BPL families; Rs. 1,500-3,000 dole to unemployed youth for two years and free travel for women in state buses. The party’s own estimates say it will cost around Rs. 50,000 crores to the state exchequer if it were to implement all the schemes. Mr Siddaramaiah’s long innings as an administrator should come handy for the party in meeting the promises.
The Karanataka win has infused a new energy into the minds of the Congress cadre in a year which will see elections to five state Assemblies: Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram. The Congress has high stakes in all these states. In Telangana, a neighbouring state of Karnataka, the party has the most unenviable task of unseating the incumbent Bharat Rashtra Samithi and ward off the challenge from an emerging BJP; it has to defend its governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, make a case for re-capturing power in Madhya Pradesh and negotiate a tough deal in the politically messy Mizoram.
The way the party’s government fares in Karnataka and meets its promises could have resonance among the electorate in other states as well. The BJP has learnt its lesson that real life issues cannot be covered up by fanning artificial slogans in Assembly elections, and could hence change tack. The Congress leadership will have to remain vigilant about its government’s performance in Karnataka from the very beginning if it looks to approach the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with a creditable performance in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
