In Karnataka, one of the few states still in the Congress’ clutch, the road to 2018 is paved with multiple hazards.
Lurching from one crisis to another, the Congress has been in perpetual firefighting mode this year in Karnataka. Its latest tribulation has come in two forms.
One, the party’s government is facing heat over the attacks and murders of right-wing activists. The BJP says more than ten of its workers have been murdered in the last three years, including one in the heart of Bengaluru. Even before that furore died down, minister Tanvir Sait was filmed by a TV channel watching porn on his phone during the controversial Tipu Jayanti celebrations. The winter session of the state legislature beginning in Belagavi on November 21 is likely to be stalled over the two issues.
And then, chief minister Siddaramaiah and home minister G Parameshwara, who is also the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, are at odds. Though Parameshwara has completed six years as KPCC president, the Congress high command has shown no signs of replacing him and the party seems destined to go to the 2018 polls with this dichotomy.
The last few months have been spent in pacifying dropped ministers from the minority and Dalit sections and senior leaders who have not been given cabinet berths and unhappy partymen vying for plum posts. Even to this day, partymen are still being appointed for various bodies.
Dalit leader Srinivas Prasad quit his Assembly seat after a bitter falling out with Siddaramaiah after being dropped from the ministry. A one-time close friend who was instrumental in bringing Siddaramaiah to the Ahinda (a Kannada acronym for the coalition of backward classes, dalits and minorities) platform, Srinivas Prasad has a considerable hold on the Dalit vote of Mysuru and Nanjangud and the impact of this will be felt in the 2018 elections.
As things stand, the BJP is expected to pick up most of the seats in Mysuru, while the JD(S) has grown strong in Mandya, Hassan and Tumkur. In three byelections held in February 2016, the Congress managed to win just one.
And in the Bengaluru city corporation elections held in 2015, Congress managed to win only 76 seats, while the BJP took 100 seats. It was only through some quick clever thinking that the Congress tied up with JD(S) and took control of the civic authority.
Lastly, BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa is raring to go after being cleared of corruption charges by the courts.