For whom the polls toll

Poll jitters have overtaken the helmsmen of the two high-profile cyber states of the south, S.M. Krishna and Chandrababu Naidu, of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh respectively. These jitters have been partly inspired by the recent exit polls and partly by their own perception of ground realities. Their predicament is a comment, as much on the glorious uncertainties of electoral fortune, the essentially iffy nature of politics despite the certitudes of caste banks and coalitions, as it is on their own individual failures to ensure a proper melding of growth and development.

There is something about the two states that invites instant comparison — and it’s not just the fact that they lie cheek-by-jowl, geographically speaking, and are presently gripped by simultaneously held general and assembly elections. They are both headed by dynamic, reform-minded chief ministers who have attempted to turn their respective territories into hi-tech regional powers and have both had to wrestle with the most basic of issues facing any government — like the availability of water and the deathly despair of farmers facing failed harvests. The question, of course, is whether the electoral scythe will decapitate these two important chief ministers. Should that happen, it would be a pity but would also be an object lesson on the importance of making the benefits of growth and reform more ubiquitous — not just in regional but community terms. In Karnataka, the very fact that Chief Minister S.M. Krishna has had to desert the more rural constituency of Maddur, where he himself comes from, for the safe haven of Chamrajpet in south Bangalore, was an open acknowledgement of his inability to deliver the vision of Bangalore as a growth magnet, even to those places that are just a remove away. Krishna’s political rivals, the BJP and JD(U), have been able to exploit the consequent resentments to shore up their own profile. Go east, and the story repeats itself with a vengeance. In Andhra Pradesh, from all indications, there seems to be an anti-incumbency factor working against Naidu, not just in the shabbily treated region of Telengana but even in the comparatively more affluent coastal regions. Here again the promise of Hyderabad has proved elusive to the millions in the hinterland.

It is interesting then to notice that both chief ministers are desperately projecting their development records to win more electoral acceptance. Krishna has been flogging his mid-day meal record, while Naidu talks about his efforts to make cheap credit easily available to women. These are good initiatives. If only there were more of them, alas!