The decimation of the Congress-JDS combine in Karnataka might have come as a shocker to political observers North of the Vindhyas. But to those in the know, the saffron surge is the result of painstaking planning, with a little bit of luck thrown in.
Not content to peg their hopes on a ‘Modi wave’ once again, the BJP has in the past few years, taken up several small and large missions to ensure a thumping victory. In retrospect, state president Yeddyurappa’s confidence on winning 22 seats, does not seem misplaced, considering they bagged 25 instead.
For instance, the political plot to humble Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge was drafted many months ago. Coupled with behind the scenes manoeuvres was elaborate groundwork to ensure the stalwart politician lost for the first time. Many such small victories can be laid at the doorsteps of the rank and file of the BJP in addition to the Modi wave.
This kind of groundwork is not new for the BJP, which occupied a spot vacated by the disintegration of the Janata Dal in the 1990s. Through the past three decades, leaders like BS Yeddyurappa, HN Ananth Kumar, KS Eshwarappa and the late BB Shivappa have mounted several missions to expand the horizons of the BJP.
Another campaign, carried out mostly in the background, has been the quiet decimation of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), from educational institutions in the state. Today, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has a huge presence across educational institutions in Karnataka.
Before the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (CET) was introduced, private colleges were free to charge fees decided upon on their own. The ABVP played a big part in this agitation and earned the goodwill of students and parents alike and slowly went on to dominate campuses. Today, many top leaders, including Shobha Karandlaje, Arvind Limbavali and Ananth Kumar can trace their roots to this student organization.
While keeping its focus on students and youth, the BJP also made moves to reach out to the sizeable business community. With its image of being more liberal in its economic policies, the BJP was an instant hit with this segment, looking for an alternative from the policies of the Congress.
Since then, one would argue, there has been no looking back for the BJP. It won 4 seats in the 1991 Lok Sabha election, rising to 7 in 1996, crossing double digits with 13 seats in 1998. Even during the NDA’s defeat nationally in 2004, the BJP still notched a comfortable 18 out of 28 seats in Karnataka and went on to win 19 seats in 2009.
Yeddyurappa’s aggressive espousal of agrarian issues as leader of the opposition, an elaborate strategy to woo the Dalits and backward communities by drawing leaders like Srinivas Prasad, S Bangarappa, Ramesh Jigajinagi, HN Nanje Gowda over the years has paid dividends as the BJP is no more a party of the upper castes in the state now.
The party’s presence in the coastal areas, where an increasingly affluent class of minorities was creating insecurity in the minds of the Hindu population, also made the BJP stronger. It exploited these insecurities to firmly cement its base in the coastal towns and cities.
There are many more examples for how the BJP did not just rely on the Congress mistake of ousting Veerendra Patil in 1990 or Kumaraswamy’s ‘betrayal’ in 2008 in which he broke the power-sharing agreement and refused to make way for Yeddyurappa.
This was a huge political blunder for the JDS. One could say that perhaps the JDS repeated the same blunder in 2018 when it sought to keep the BJP out of power once again, even though they are the single largest party in the assembly.
This alliance of sworn rivals however imploded spectacularly over the next one year, ultimately resulting in the rout of both parties as infighting among both party members and some leaders led to the BJP conquering new frontiers like Kalaburagi, Kolar and Chikkaballapur.
Today, the party has emerged as the strongest alternative to the Congress, with the JDS going through a phase without strong ideological loyalties. The party has also successfully managed to tap into aspirations of youth, its biggest support base.