BENGALURU: Higher education minister G T Devegowda dropped a bomb on Wednesday when he said that JDS supporters may have voted for the BJP and not the Congress in Mysuru. While he clarified soon after that he was referring to just one gram panchayat, his statements came as no surprise to leaders of the Congress, especially those in the close circles of legislative party chief Siddaramaiah.
Gowda simply spoke what was on Siddaramaiah’s mind all along, ever since phase II voting concluded in Karnataka. Sources close to the coordination committee chief suggest that the JDS leadership’s inability to ensure a transfer of votes to alliance candidate Vijayshankar has him fuming. “Despite the rebellion in Mandya, Congress leaders tried their best to coax their workers into voting for CM H D Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumar, but not a single leader of the JDS was willing to even ask the local leadership to campaign or vote for Vijayshankar,” said a Congress leader close to Siddaramaiah.
Mysore Lok Sabha seat was a matter of pride for Siddaramaiah, who had bargained hard to retain it with the Congress during seat sharing agreement. With coalition candidate Vijayashankar, a Kuruba, Siddaramaiah had hoped to beat the BJP’s number game with absolute consolidation of Kurub, OBC votes and gain a major chunk of Vokkaliga votes from the JDS, considering that the SC/ST vote would be split between the coalition and the BJP.
“Transfering the JDS vote to Krishna Byregowda, a Vokkaliga, in Bangalore North, was not a challenge but convincing cadres to vote for Vijayshankar, a Kuruba, when another Vokkaliga — Pratap Simha — was in the fray was never going to be easy,” another Congress leader said. Congress is basing its argument on voter turnout in all eight assembly segments of Mysore Lok Sabha seats. Congress has an MLA in just one of the eight assembly segments, while JDS has three MLAs and BJP has four. Madikeri, considered a BJP bastion, recorded the highest voter turnout, followed closely by Hunsur — a seat where JDS holds the sway.
Sources close to Siddaramaiah insisted that the former CM is waiting for May 23. “He will speak to the central leadership on the bearing of this coalition on the Congress after elections. His argument will be based on vote share and actual transfer,” said an aid of Siddaramaiah. While the Congress acknowledges that some vote transfer has taken place, will that suffice to ensure a victory to the coalition candidate, is the real question.
Coalition partners upset
“They have worked well in some places but in others, because of personal rivalry, Congress workers have voted for Congress, but people from JDS have voted for BJP. I believe this has happened in many places,” G T Devegowda said. He insisted that by the time Congress and JDS formed an alliance, party workers had started working in a different tangent. “They could not join hands,” he added.
G T Devegowda’s statement was not just an embarrassment to the Congress, but also a reality check. “His statements are confusing. Such statements don’t bode well for a coalition. Such things wouldn’t have happened had people who had taken responsibility worked well. Going by his statements, it looks like they haven’t worked honestly,” slammed Dinesh Gundu Rao, president, AICC.
BJP seized the opportunity to poke fun at the coalition. “G T Devegowda has already conceded defeat. Not just JDS, but leaders of the Congress too have supported BJP,” said R Ashok, senior BJP leader. He mocked that “unseen” hands were at work within the coalition to topple the government. “We will make no attempts to topple this government. Those unseen hands will do it,” he said.