Karnataka is now in birth pangs of a new government — May 2023. The fight is between the incumbent BJP and desperate Congress but JD(S) is the challenge to both Congress and BJP. H.D. Kumaraswamy of JD(S) is confident that in case of a fractured mandate he can act as a catalyst in forming the government and become a king-maker or with a little bit of luck become the king himself. After all, if it could happen in the past in 2006 (BJP, JD-S) and 2018 (Congress-JD(S), why not in 2023? It is said that politics is the game of possibilities. He who plays well will win.

Be that as it may, I am wondering if there are similarities to the present 2023 Assembly election and the 1999 Assembly election in Karnataka. Yes there are, I guess.

Sonia Gandhi had become the President of Congress party in March 1998, about a year before the Karnataka Assembly election in October 1999. Now at the time of 2023 Assembly election, Mallikarjun Kharge is the President of Congress party. He became the President in  October 2022, about a year before the present Karnataka Assembly election. In 1999, the President of KPCC was S.M. Krishna, who became the Chief Minister following Congress victory. In 2023, the President of KPCC is D.K. Shivakumar. Is it possible for Congress to repeat 1999 success in 2023? If it does, then will D.K. Shivakumar become the Chief Minister like S.M. Krishna becoming CM in 1999?

At the Centre there was a surprise development when the first Vajpayee Government lost the vote of confidence (April 17, 1999) and collapsed. As a result, Karnataka Assembly election (October 1999) came to be held along with the Lok Sabha elections (September – October 1999).

The Congress Central Election Committee (CCEC) decided that Sonia Gandhi would contest from Raebareli. The kowtowing by Congress ‘men’ to Nehru-Gandhi family seemed to have begun from the time of this 1999 Parliamentary election. The CCEC made a request to Sonia Gandhi, who was sure to win Raebareli, as it was her family’s fiefdom since independence, that in order to project her as a national leader she should also contest from a Southern State and it could be Karnataka. That was how the sitting MP of Bellary K.C. Kondaiah ‘voluntarily’ vacated the seat for Sonia Gandhi.

That was probably for the first time in Indian electoral politics a person was contesting from two Constituencies (thanks to our Constitution and the law relating to elections) to show to the world his or her power and popularity! It may not be the beginning of sycophancy in Congress. That was there since Nehru’s days anyway. But the days of total surrender and servile submission to Nehru-Gandhi family headed by Sonia Gandhi began for all Congress men and women from the time Sonia was offered the Presidentship of AICC on a platter by three senior Congress stalwarts  two of whom have left the Congress and have formed their own party while another veteran’s son has joined BJP! What an irony!! No wonder Sonia continued to be the President of AICC for 25 years, till 2022 when Mallikarjun Kharge was ‘elected’ as Congress President. After a farce of an election, according to report. Let it be.

However, the moot point is the idea of one person contesting from two Constituencies to face the adversary and thereby gamble a victory at least in one of the two Constituencies. Yes, for Sonia Gandhi’s good luck she won her Bellary seat despite facing a formidable Sushma Swaraj of BJP challenging her. Sonia, of course, won from Raebareli also. However, she chose to resign her Bellary seat, as law requires a person to hold only one seat. Allowing a person to contest from two or more seats is one of many aberrations or quirks of democracy! Will a ‘nation first’ government set-right this kind of fault lines in our electoral system? Who is to bell the cat? These are the times when men are mice and political leaders are cats!

When results came, Vajpayee-led NDA returned to power at the Centre but in Karnataka Congress won with absolute majority of 132 seats in the 224 member Assembly and S.M. Krishna became the Chief Minister.

I reflect on this past political events today because in this election we see one BIG leader from Congress Siddharamaiah, former Chief Minister and now the Leader of Opposition, wanting desperately to contest from two Constituencies — Varuna and Kolar. Was he afraid of losing in Varuna (a seat his son Dr. Yathindra sacrificed for him) that he decided to have another string in his bow? Or was he wanting to prove his power and popularity like Sonia Gandhi proved in 1999 Parliamentary election? Anyway, now that the Congress has refused to oblige him he has to fight for his honour from Varuna only.

In the meanwhile, BJP is upto some Plan-B in its election strategy, being aware that it is on a weak wicket facing the challenges of incumbency and corruption. So it fields a ‘Bahubali’ of a Lingayat politician V. Somanna against Siddharamaiah while Somanna is also contesting from a second Constituency in Chamarajanagar, the neighbouring district to Mysuru’s Varuna. It is rumoured that should Somanna win in both, he becomes a giant killer. And the reward? Pattabhisheka, coronation as Chief Minister!   

But wait. The BJP has also pushed another BIG Vokkaliga leader R. Ashoka into the lion’s den in Kanakapura, the bastion of that ‘monolith’ D.K. Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga. R. Ashoka  is also contesting from his fiefdom Padmanabhanagar as an insurance cover! Now                                                             if he wins both, will he also make a claim for CM’s office? That is a big IF.

Hurrah ! Blow the trumpet. Let the electoral war begin.

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