There was an absorbing plot that lent itself to some drama and suspense but the recent Rajya Sabha election in Karnataka was not expected to be a tear-jerker until Deve Gowda made a public show of his emotions. The 83-year-old JD(S) boss can shed tears effortlessly —a trait so handy for a politician.
In his six-decade-long political career, Gowda was elected to the state assembly seven times, an equal number of times to Parliament (including once to the Upper House), became Chief Minister once and even the country’s Prime Minister once, but you can’t keep count of the number of times he turned emotional in public. And the issues were as varied as farmers’ plight to his own illness. But the latest episode, just a week ago, was when he talked about the betrayal by his party MLAs in the RS poll held a day earlier.
Cross-voting by eight of his MLAs ensured that the JD(S) candidate lost and the Congress won more than its fair share of seats. For once, it seemed as if Gowda was shedding tears for the party he built. The rebellion is just a sign, the rot in the JD(S) runs much deeper. The party had long since turned into a completely family affair, but not unlike many other regional parties in India, and not least because politics is also a business in this country.
Gowda’s unapologetic display of nepotism is what drove away the likes of Siddaramaiah, who walked into the Congress in 2006 with a chunk of JD(S) vote bank. Look at how the party is controlled by one family: Gowda is the national president, son H D Kumaraswamy heads its Karnataka unit, and another son, H D Revanna, is an MLA. While one daughter-in-law made a successful electoral debut in the recent Zilla Panchayat polls, another contested the last assembly polls and lost. Add to this the long line of family members and relatives waiting to make a political mark. The JD(S) looks more like a family-run enterprise than a political party.
The eight rebel MLAs have been suspended, and will certainly be expelled. That doesn’t mean the party can shake off the unsavoury episode. Some of these MLAs enjoy considerable voter support even without the JD(S) prop. The party once boasted of unflinching support among the dominant Vokkaliga community, to which Gowdas belong, and counted Muslims among its staunch supporters. But slowly, Muslims have moved away from the JD(S), abetted in no small measure by Gowda’s friend-turned-foe Siddaramaiah, whose policy of pampering minorities, dalits and backward communities made him a strong force in the Congress. Two of the suspended MLAs are Muslims who, ironically, voted against the only Muslim candidate in the RS election fray, B M Farooq, put up by the JD(S).
Though Gowda accused the Congress of betraying Muslims by conspiring to defeat a Muslim candidate, it’s not lost on anyone that the decision to field Farooq had nothing to do with either politics or giving representation to the community — a point underscored by the cash-for-votes allegations that hogged the media attention in the run-up to the June 11 election.
The JD(S) is also facing the threat of erosion in its Vokkaliga vote bank. The Congress is prepping D K Shivakumar, the Vokkaliga strongman groomed by S M Krishna, to take over the party reins. DKS, as he is known, is more than a match for the Gowda-Kumaraswamy duo in any political game. The JD(S) may still retain some of its hold over the Mysore region and the community as long as Gowda remains at the helm, but it is fast losing the influence it once had and may no longer be able to play kingmaker in state politics.
Gowda has come a long way from his initial Congress days way back in the 1950s. After a decade being a Congressman, he turned a socialist and was even jailed during the Emergency. The testimony to his political astuteness is the fact that he manoeuvred himself onto the PM’s chair in 1996 though he was a relatively unknown figure outside Karnataka.
After the Janata Dal split up in 1999, the Gowda-headed JD(S) had a tough time in Karnataka and he himself lost the election that year. But Gowda ensured that the party grew over the next few years by focusing on the traditional support base and building on its secular image. The party, which won just 10 assembly seats in 1999, managed to secure 58 seats five years later, putting itself in a position of kingmaker. The growth helped the JD(S) share power with the Congress and later make Kumaraswamy CM with the help of BJP, another example of Gowda’s political shrewdness. The party won 40 seats in 2013, but come 2018, the prospect looks bleak. In India political power is money. And money is what ensures political survival. The last time JD(S) was in power was in 2007. No wonder Gowda is devastated. But this time tears won’t do the trick.
Kiran Prakash
Deputy Resident Editor, Karnataka
E-mail: kiranprakash@newindianexpress.com