While S.M. Krishna’s defeat was not as humiliating as N. Chandrababu Naidu’s, Hyderabad’s echoes were heard in Bangalore today as the Congress CM who modelled himself on the lines of his Andhra Pradesh counterpart was shown the door. With BJP emerging as the single largest party in the House —79 seats in a 224-member Assembly—Krishna submitted his resignation to the Governor. The Congress got 64 in the hung House, and it is the H.D. Deve Gowda-led JD(S) with 58 seats, better than anyone expected, that will decide who forms the next government. Among the losers were more than half of Krishna’s Cabinet members, though former minister Roshan Baig won. An accused in the fake stamp paper racket, he was elected from the Jayamahal assembly seat in Bangalore City. While Krishna indicated their doors were open, BJP was more frank about its plans. It admitted it would seek the support of Gowda’s party, with party leader D.H. Shankaramurthy saying: ‘‘What else do we have to do?’’ Owning moral responsibility, Krishna said he had resigned to allow his party to try for a role in the formation of the new government and said Congress would explore all possibilities to keep BJP out of power. After resigning, Krishna said he took ‘‘total responsibility’’, ‘‘first for calling an early election and later, for being the party’s sole campaign manager’’. Admitting that three years of drought, like in Naidu’s case, may have been his undoing, he added: ‘‘I wasn’t ready for such a debacle and I cannot say what went wrong.Perhaps people’s grievances have not been addressed in the manner, and the extent they would have expected, by the government.’’ Asked if the IT industry, which he vigorously promoted, would suffer in the wake of his exit, Krishna said: ‘‘I am sure the new government will not come in the way of flow of investments to the state, even though priorities may change.’’ It’s clear that the undoing of the Congress came at the hands of the JD(S). Not only did the party do well in Old Mysore, it also made inroads into Central and North Karnataka by cashing in on the anti-incumbency syndrome. Gowda had good news on the home front too. While Gowda lost the Kanakapura constituency, he managed to win in Hassan, his home turf. In drought-hit North Karnataka, the lotus bloomed, giving the BJP major gains. The bone-dry and powerless boondocks, which didn’t figure in IT-savvy Krishna’s project to turn Bangalore into a Singapore, exacted their revenge. Even a slew of programmes and a special package for farmers announced some time ago was viewed as too little, too late.
