Think, act local

For the BJP, so keen to project itself as more than a political party of the Hindi heartland, Karnataka has always been a special aspiration. In the past decade, barring 1999, it has outperformed the Congress in Lok Sabha elections. So, as our columnist today details, the party’s near-majority in the assembly elections is not as much of a geographical leap as it may appear at first sight. The dissonance between Lok Sabha successes and Vidhan Sabha failures for the BJP could perhaps be found in the earlier prioritisation of the BJP’s national leadership and strategies over maintenance of local separateness — for instance, in taking on the anti-incumbency of previous Janata Dal (United) regimes. This time round, however, the party allowed B.S. Yeddyurappa, chief minister of a few days in November 2007, to take charge of the campaign as a local leader, without being burdened by its national compulsions. By every first indication, he has done remarkably well, picking up urban, rural and reserved seats. But the real test of governance has now begun.

The Congress, seeking alibis in delimitation and fragmentation of the “secular vote”, should consider how it ran its campaign. Since 2004, when it got immediate returns on intelligent alliances with regional parties like the RJD and DMK to be able to lead a government at the Centre, its performance in assembly elections has been dismal. The exceptions are Andhra Pradesh, which simultaneously voted in 2004 for its assembly, and a year later Haryana. In each, the Congress had a clear local leader who could be, and was, projected as a chief ministerial candidate. Earlier, in 2003, the party bucked anti-incumbency in Delhi by keeping faith in its incumbent CM, Sheila Dikshit — this in a contest where the BJP was internally divided. For the importance of keeping state leadership localised and unambiguous, one need only look at Uttar Pradesh. A year ago, it was not that Mayawati’s BSP wiped out the SP. Her majority was gained by the decimation of what voters perceived as also-rans, the Congress and the BJP. As detailed below, Indian voters are now sorting out the crowded field and trimming the political contest to a narrowed fray of two alternatives. Unlike the BJP, which nonetheless is still struggling with mixed signals in, say, Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has been slow to read this mood.

In other words, to find success locally, the Congress must rectify its problem nationally. A strange consensus is uttered by the party’s voluble general secretaries and spokespersons, that the Congress tradition is not to project a leader before elections. The party’s high command must instead question whether this false construct is just a way for power brokers to wield influence that does not come to them democratically.