The blueprint for the 2018 assembly polls in Karnataka for both the national parties seems to be from the same template. Political polarisation, social engineering, appeasement, and chanting the development mantra are no longer the rhetoric of any single party, but the political anthem in a state headed for polls in less than eight months.
The Siddaramaiah government launched a consultative process to crowdsource ideas from the citizens to draft a vision document 'Nava Karnataka 2025', which will steer the development across 13 sectors over the next seven years. While the initiative is similar to 'Vision 2022' unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Karnataka CM clarified that 'Nava Karnataka 2025' would be part of the election manifesto of the Congress and hoped that the document will give direction to the development of the state irrespective of which party comes to power post 2018.
The chief minister has invited suggestions on social media even as day-long workshops across the 30 districts are expected to draw opinions and feedback on sectors like agriculture, infrastructure, industrial development, education, employment, skill development and social justice, from the citizens. A website has also been created to engage the youth. “We want to get out of the ivory tower and go to the common man for suggestions for development,” said Siddaramaiah.
To counter BJP's people-connect programmes—Jan Sampark Abhiyan and Vistaraks—the ruling Congress launched the Mane Manege Congress (Congress at every home), a door-to-door campaign, on September 23.
“During the campaign, 66,000 booth level agents will apprise the people of our programmes and projects in the last four years, besides highlighting the failure of the Modi government. We have fulfilled 155 out of the 165 poll promises. We hope to reach out to at least one crore voters by October 15,” said KPCC chief G. Parameshwara. While the outreach programme is a bid to shed its “dynasty-centric” image, it is also aimed at helping the grand old party evolve as a cadre-based party, expanding its volunteer base at the booth level.
After a windfall of Bhagya schemes – the populist schemes targeting the Ahinda (minorities, backward classes and the dalits) voterbase in the first three years—the Siddaramaiah government seems to have hit upon social engineering to counter the Hindutva brigade, in the fag end of its tenure.
The masterstroke, however, was the Congress ministers piloting the Lingayat agitation, demanding separate religion tag. While the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community has traditionally backed the BJP, the Congress government extending its tacit support to Lingayat agitation has caught the BJP unawares. At the same time, it has succeeded in polarisation of the politically and numerically strong Lingayat community.
The Congress is making inroads into the strong bastions of its political opponents in the state. It checkmated the JD(S) by espousing the Kannada cause, while causing a flutter in the BJP circle by pitching the regional identity before nationalism. Evoking the Kannada pride, the Siddaramaiah government set up a committee to design the Kannada flag and to examine if it was legally tenable. The Congress' fervour in kindling the Kannada identity can put any regional party to shame. At the same time, the Congress' social engineering strategy—consolidating the Ahinda votes, appeasement of smaller caste groups, alleged complacency in tackling communal flareups in Coastal Karnataka to cash in on polarisation, or breaking into the tough turfs of the saffron party by dividing the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community have indeed unsettled its rivals. Three ministers – M.B. Patil, Sharan Prakash Patil and Vinay Kulkarni (elected president of the newly formed Rashtriya Basava Sene)—leading the Lingayat agitation has worried the BJP and many in the Congress alike, as it would affect their electoral prospects due to division of the Lingayat votes.
If the income tax raids on senior Congress leaders Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar, Congress women's wing chief Lakshmi Hebbalkar, minister Ramesh Jarkiholi and MLC Govindaraju rattled the Congress, it was BJP's turn to be hassled as two FIRs alleging illegal denotification were filed against BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. The ruling Congress had earlier accused the Centre of “misusing” the central agencies like IT, ED and CBI to “settle” political scores. And now, the BJP raises suspicion over the “intent” of the ACB, which is under the control of the chief minister.
Even as the Congress government is on its last lap, the crumbling infrastructure of IT city, farmer suicides, unresolved water disputes, murder of progressive thinkers like M.M. Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh and mysterious deaths of senior officers like D.K. Ravi, Anurag Tiwari, M.K. Ganapathy, Kallappa Handibaug are bound to raise a lot more questions.
