By V.S. Karnic, IANS
Bangalore : Two weeks remain for the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to hand over power to coalition partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka. But whether the transfer will take place Oct 3 is still uncertain.
The conflicting signals from the JD-S on the power transfer for over a month now and the number of theories on the differences within BJP on the issue have been aptly described as “tax-free entertainment”.
Leading the JD-S brigade is Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who has to make way for Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa Oct 3 under an informal pact the two reached to topple the Congress-JD-S coalition in February 2006.
Kumaraswamy’s father and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who is also the JD-S president, is also contributing to the uncertainty.
He has been saying that the power transfer will take place only after he has talks on the issue with BJP national leaders – former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leader of opposition L.K. Advani and party president Rajnath Singh.
That meeting will take place Sep 28, and Deve Gowda says he wants his son and other state JD-S leaders not to talk about power transfer till then.
Kumaraswamy started off as chief minister with a lot of goodwill from the people though he joined hands with BJP to topple a coalition government in which his party was a partner.
He is young at 48 years and announced a slew of programmes to tone up the lethargic and corrupt administration. He holds ‘janatha darshan’ (meeting with public) on Saturdays when he is in Bangalore and has begun spending a night in backward villages.
His image has, however, taken a beating in the last 19 months he has been in power. His programmes have either not taken off or are progressing at a slow pace.
Bangalore, known as the IT capital of India, continues to suffer. Roads remain pot-holed and traffic snarls show no sign of abating.
A half hour heavy downpour turns several arterial roads of Bangalore into rivers and flood low-lying areas.
More than these problems, Kumaraswamy is worried about the severe drubbing to his credibility if he does not stick to his power transfer promise.
He is also wary of angering the dominant Lingayat community to which Yediyurappa belongs. Kumaraswamy belongs to another dominant community, Vokkaligas.
His father Deve Gowda, however, is not that worried as he hopes to offset any loss in Lingayat votes to JD-S by playing the secular card to woo minorities.
In a deft move, Deve Gowda recently appointed Merajuddin Patel, a minority leader from north Karnataka, as president of the Karnataka unit. JD-S has a weak base in north Karnataka where Lingayats dominate.
For BJP, it has become a classic case of running the whole distance only to see the goal post altered.
BJP emerged the single largest party with 79 seats in the 225-member assembly in 2004 but agreed to play a secondary role in the hope of installing its first chief minister in southern India.
In the last 19 months, BJP has swallowed many decisions taken unilaterally by the coalition partner.
It has ignored or reacted mildly to JD-S barbs against it as a ‘communal’ party whose leaders cannot be trusted to follow secular principles and the common minimum programme of the coalition government.
Power transfer has been the dominant issue in the local media for more than a month. And no meeting with leaders of the two parties ends without a question or two on power transfer.
Apparently exasperated by the persistence of the media and the contradictory statements of JD-S leaders, state BJP president D.V. Sadananda Gowda this month termed the whole exercise as “tax-free entertainment”.
The entertainment is set to continue through September.