On the midnight of May 13, a WhatsApp call between two politicians in Delhi laid the foundation for a post-poll alliance between the JD(S) and Congress in Karnataka. On D-day (counting day) on May 15, within a few hours of counting, the parties announced their alliance, which caught an otherwise vigilant BJP unawares.
The coming together of arch-rivals to form a coalition government has perhaps set a precedent for future alliances between the most unlikely of political partners.
The man of the moment was JD(S) national general secretary Kunwar Danish Ali (51), who responded positively to senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. The duo had worked out different formulae to keep the BJP at bay.
Ali helped his party regain power after a decade, despite winning only 38 seats out of 224, in the recently concluded Assembly polls.
The circumstances were too odd for an alliance. The animosity between current Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and then Congress CM Siddaramaiah had grown stronger and following an aggressive election campaign with personal attacks, the chances of a partnership had become bleak. It was then the timely negotiations between Ali and Azad helped both parties bury the hatchet.
Recalling his conversation with his JD(S) bosses on the eve of counting, Ali says, "I spoke about Azad's proposal to Kumaraswamy on the midnight of May 14, when he was returning to Bengaluru from Singapore. First, he was very furious and told me, the Congress had tried to demolish JD(S) by taking away seven MLAs and later snatched minority votes by dubbing JD(S) as the b team of BJP.”
“I tried to convince him and urged him not to take any decision without consulting me once the results were out. Then, I spoke to Deve Gowda who asked me to go ahead with the plan."
Ali and Azad had worked out a formula to keep BJP out of power. The Congress would back the JD(S) if it won less than 100 seats. And if the Congress exceeded 100 seats, the JD(S) would extend support to a Congress-led government. By noon on counting day, Azad who had already landed in Bengaluru a day prior to counting, called Ali, who was still in Delhi.
"The idea was to distract the BJP. When the BJP was focussed on Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy, we had already finalised the deal over a phone call. Azad was sitting at the residence of chief minister Siddaramaiah and I was keen that Siddaramaiah and the Congress high command be taken on board before the final nod. I told the CM to forget everything and focus on saving democracy," laughs Ali.
As a senior statesman, Deve Gowda wanted to wait till the final result was out before making any announcement. But Ali and Azad suggested the parties should act fast.
Even as you wonder how a north Indian, Delhi-based, Hindi-speaking politician can wield so much influence in a family-centric regional party that has its presence only in a few districts of the south Karnataka region, Ali recounts his first meeting with Deve Gowda in 1994.
"I am from UP and as a leader of the student wing of Janata Dal at the Jamia Milia Islamia University, I came to Karnataka for the first time to campaign for Janata Dal, with wheel as its party symbol. I met Deve Gowdaji. Those days, the Dal was a big force and had its presence across the country. After Deve Gowdaji became the CM, I invited him to be the chief guest at the platinum jubilee of JMI,” Ali said.
“In 1999, when Janata Dal split, and senior leaders like Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad Yadav joined the NDA, I chose to stay with Deve Gowda, along with others like Madhu Dandawate, owing to my ideological commitment."
In the last 22 years, Ali has been the face of the party in the capital. While his attempts to make it to the Rajya Sabha have not been successful, he seems to have taken it in his stride. "Socialism gets defeated by capitalism," he laughs, taking a dig at the moneybags entering the Upper House.
With the new coalition government in place in Karnataka, Ali—who has successfully managed to stitch a pre-poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party and now a post-poll alliance with the Congress—will be responsible for the smooth functioning of the coalition too. Ali is the convenor of the five-member coordination committee headed by Siddaramaiah, with Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, deputy CM G. Parameshwara, and AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal as its members.
Ali says both parties have to follow the coalition 'dharma' for the long haul. With a pre-poll alliance ahead of the 2019 Parliament polls, the two allies have surely set new standards for give-and-take, as the Congress has offered JD(S) the chief minister's post for a full term of five years, and the JD(S) has reciprocated by parting with 22 out of the 34 cabinet berths.
"The alliance was clinched by me," says Ali, who is keen that it succeeds. "This will set a good precedent for other regional parties to bury their differences and come together to defeat the BJP in 2019. India is the largest democracy and also a mature democracy. People will reject the authoritarian rule of Modi," declares Ali.
In August 2017, when the opposition parties met in Delhi, it was a turning point, believes Ali.
"I had remarked that the parties were wasting their energies fighting among themselves and they had to unite. After the UP win, BJP appeared to be invincible. An understanding between Congress and JD(S) defeated the BJP in the two bypolls in Karnataka. In Assembly polls too, BJP crossed 100 seats only because of Congress's campaign against the JD(S).”
“The Congress can benefit by taking along the BSP in the upcoming polls in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and also the Lok Sabha. I am happy to see Rahul Gandhi forthcoming, when it is to do with the allies. It is a good sign," says Ali.
Any opposition unity and challenge to BJP and Modi cannot be without the Congress, feels Ali, who calls himself a "political animal" who is fortunate to have the trust of leaders cutting across party lines.