Karnataka: Trouble for CM

With the authority of the Congress high command severely undermined following the unprecedented loss suffered by the party at the hands of the BJP across the nation, old hands in the Karnataka Congress are expected to try loosen Siddaramaiah’s hold over the party in state .

Though central Congress observer Digvijay Singh had vested confidence in Siddaramaiah during a co-ordination committee of the party held ahead of the announcement of the results, the old guard of the party, including UPA ministers, are expected to focus on getting their grip over the Karnataka government.

The first signs that Siddaramaiah apprehends political trouble due to the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls was evident when he went incommunicado on Friday as BJP marched forward to victory. He later put up a brave front at his home office and stated that the Congress results were not to his expectations. He added that it had won a few seats it had not expected to win.  “People wanted a change and have voted for that. We bow before the people’s verdict. Such verdicts have been delivered in the past,” he said.

Sensing the opportunity to destablise the Congress in Karnataka the BJP shortly after the poll results were out pointed to Tarun Gogoi’s example in Assam and made a call for Siddaramaiah’s resignation from the CM’s post.

Senior BJP leader R Ashok said that Karnataka is likely to witness an assembly election within two years on account of a battle that is set to ensue between old and new leaders in the Congress. “The ground has been set for the internal battle in the Congress with its defeat in the state.”

“Siddaramaiah should resign immediately moral responsibility as the people of Karnataka have rejected his party,” former BJP chief minister Jagadish Shettar said.

Siddaramaiah had been under the impression that the Congress would win at least 18 seats in the Lok Sabha polls on the back of a slew of populist programs initiated by him since coming to power.

The most damaging of losses suffered on Friday by Siddaramaiah was in his home district of Mysore where political novice, newspaper columnist and Modi biographer Prathap Simha, 37, trumped A H Vishwanath, a two time Congress MP and a member of Siddaramaiah’s own backward class Kuruba community by a margin of 31,608 votes. The word was that the dominant Vokkaliga community had joined hands across party lines in an effort to help Prathap Simha.