A ‘big tent’ symphonic orchestra

It will most likely not come to pass, but as a hypothetical model — a narrative device — it helps frame how the victory was the work of a whole orchestra of factors.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress President D K Shivakumar. (Photo | Vinod Kumar T, EPS)

If livelihood issues bent the rainbow towards the Congress in Karnataka, the pot of electoral gold at the end of it gives the Grand Old Party the lifeline it needed in national politics. At 136 seats and 43% vote share, it’s the biggest verdict any party has got in the southern state since 1989 — signalling the return of its ‘big tent’ politics.

In fact, the dual meaning contained at the macro level — connecting the local to the national — is only one of a series of factors that played out like a symphony for the Congress. The final decision on the Chief Minister is pending, but one of the proposals that came to be floated — after the precise contours of the win was clear — was quite revelatory.

It will most likely not come to pass, but as a hypothetical model — a narrative device — it helps frame how the victory was the work of a whole orchestra of factors. This was the idea of having a quartet of faces at the top, with three deputy CMs: one each from the Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities, plus one Dalit leader. That is, assuming Siddaramaiah, from the Kuruba shepherd community represents the backwards, as the CM.

• Siddaramaiah is the champion of ‘Ahinda’ politics — itself an amalgam of backward, minorities and Dalits, a whole sector that has been revived.
• KPCC chief D K Shivakumar, the other strong contender for CM and a shoo-in for the deputy’s post, pulled in a sizeable chunk of Vokkaliga votes, reducing the JD(S) to an also-ran and tipping the scales in the crucial Old Mysuru region with 37/59 seats.
• M B Patil, the party’s campaign committee chief who had just a month ago hinted at his own candidacy for the top post, can claim to be the face of a vote swing that would have surprised outside observers: the Lingayats of the north. Even if the 37 Lingayats who have won under the Congress flag answer to all descriptions, including BJP rebel Laxman Savadi, it does speak of a perceptible erosion of a solid vote bank for the BJP.
• The idea of giving Karnataka its first Dalit CM ever, which DKS sparked off in the run-up by mentioning AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, speaks to the party’s very strong showing of 21/36 in seats reserved for SCs. Even ‘SC-Left’ voters, who sought to be benefited from the BJP’s move on the internal reservation, seemed to have voted GOP. Leaders like G Parameshwara and K H Muniyappa represent this spectrum.

And this is not counting the near-sweep of tribal constituencies for the Congress, at 14 out of 15 seats reserved for STs.

If one considers that the Muslims too shed their ambivalence and backed the GOP unequivocally, it registered victories in all five regions (including six seats in the saffron-flavoured coast) and also won a majority of rural seats while splitting urban seats half and half, it completes the rainbow. And the 80-85% strike rate in the constituencies that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra touched is what the party will hope can travel up the highway to the north of the country.