Wages of unity

There is more honesty in the severing of relations between the Karnataka JDU and the BJP than there was in the forging of a pre-poll alliance between the two parties. The results bear out that the JDU-BJP pact did not carry conviction with the masses. This is primarily because the BJP’s state unit had been carrying on a campaign against the J.H. Patel ministry until its national leadership forced it to go in for an understanding with the JDU. In doing so, it allowed the Congress to fill the slot vacated by it in the opposition enabling it to garner the anti-incumbent votes and bounce back to power. It is an irony that Patel, who desperately wanted a crutch to lean on, should now blame the BJP for the ignominious defeat of his party. While pointing out the number of seats the JDU has narrowly missed because of the non-cooperation of the BJP, he does not realise where the JDU would have been if it had no truck with the BJP at all. His own shameful defeat is a measure of the discontent his government had causedamong the voters of Karnataka. On its part, the BJP too has not made matters easy for the alliance by blaming the JDU wholly for its defeat in the state. What is forgotten between the two is that there is no sure-shot formula in politics.

If the JDU-BJP tie-up was a disaster in Karnataka, it was a grand success in Bihar, where the two parties won 40 out of 50 seats. Thus it all depends on how the parties concerned gave the alliance a try. The ending of their relationship in Karnataka does not mean much as elections to both the Assembly and Parliament are five years away and the Congress enjoys clear majority support in the Assembly. Nor is it likely to have any adverse impact on the National Democratic Alliance government. A sulking Ramakrishna Hegde may not be a symbol of the NDA’s cohesion, but then he should have known what was in store for him. Whether it was George Fernandes’ machinations, as he alleges, that deprived him of a berth in the Vajpayee ministry or not, he has few options now. Thecomposition of the JDU, which is wholly drawn from North Bihar, save for the three seats it won from Karnataka, precludes the possibility of the revival of the Lok Shakti. Since all of them had contested on the common arrow symbol, the anti-defection law comes into play forbidding him to leave the JDU unless he decides to operate as a Lok Shakti leader outside the House and as a JDU member inside it.

For the NDA government, it may be disconcerting that bickerings have begun in one of its constituents even before it is firmly in place. This may strengthen the fears of those partymen who were apprehensive of the sudden move to rope into the NDA the Sharad Yadav-led Janata Dal. If anything it shows how difficult Atal Behari Vajpayee’s task is in leading such a heterogeneous formation as the NDA. As Hegde has himself pointed out, in the selection of ministers, the Prime Minister went solely by the advice of the parties concerned. And in any case he could not have been more liberal to the JDU which, with fourplum Cabinet posts, walked away with the maximum number of ministerial berths after the BJP.