BENGALURU: Yet to recover from the crushing verdict that the Lok Sabha election delivered, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy called a meeting of his cabinet colleagues on Friday. What transpired was a realisation that when the chips are down, it’s best to stick together, put their heads together and hope that the existential crisis blows over.
“The mandate was for the Lok Sabha and the country. It was not for the state government. All ministers have reposed their faith and confidence in H D Kumaraswamy as CM. The Lok Sabha results will have no bearing on the coalition government or its stability,” asserted Deputy CM G Parameshwara, even as Kumaraswamy, who was sitting next to him, refused to utter a single word.
The election result has come as a binding force for the coalition partners who realise that by staying together, they stay afloat.
“Whether we like it or not, we are like Siamese twins now. You might not like what the other twin is doing, but you can’t just move away,” said a Karnataka minister, giving a perspective of where the Congress-JDS coalition stands. Disappointment over his father HD Deve Gowda and son Nikhil Kumaraswamy losing from Tumkur and Mandya was writ large on the CM’s face. For the Congress, which was confident of becoming a more assertive partner, the results may have thrown up a lesson or two in humility. The JDS, too, is left with no choice but to make the coalition work.
With new vim in the BJP to cobble up the required numbers, the coalition is now concentrating on keeping its flock intact and has realised that the BJP is very likely to poach vulnerable members. “Nobody is willing to face elections. How many MLAs, irrespective of party, are confident of re-election? The best and only thing to do is to get our act together and keep this coalition going,” said another Congress leader.
The logic is simple: Why do anything which may bring down the government, when the BJP will anyway resort to its tricks and create sympathy for the coalition?
For Congress, it is a question of survival and relevance at the state-level. “National perspective is now secondary. Only if I survive in the state will I be able to contribute at the national scene,” said a Congress minister, adding that continuation of the coalition is inevitable. “One of us is weak without the other right now,” he added.
Both the JDS and Congress seem to have agreed that a lot of introspection is required if either of them intends to ensure their survival.