Karnataka Congress may not recover quickly if old wounds don't heal

The death of the Congress in Karnataka will be certain if the party does not try to pacify the anger of senior leaders, stop internal rifts, halt opportunistic leaders joining other parties, and attempt to regain support from its party cadres at the ground level.

After the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, and subsequent state elections by 2017, the Congress was in power in only four states — Karnataka, Punjab, Mizoram and Meghalaya. Karnataka remained important for the Congress as the state sent the highest number of MPs (nine) and was the only southern state in its hold. Now it holds power Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and Puducherry.

But the rift widens as top leaders aspire for the chief ministerial position and young leaders take charge of the Congress Committee. Many seniors feel ignored and there’s a lack in guidance.

Senior Congress leader and seven-time MLA R Roshan Baig’s scathing attack on Congress leaders, like KC Venugopal, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Siddaramaiah, was not a one-off incident. With various Lok Sabha election exit polls predicting maximum seats for the BJP in Karnataka, the discontent was out in the open.

Personal ambition over party growth

In 2017, former foreign affair minister SM Krishna quit the party citing lack of respect for seniors and a departure from core ideology in the party. Similarly, senior leader from the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, AB Malakareddy, quit the party for same reason. Both Krishna and Malakareddy joined the BJP, while Baig did not hesitate to say he would too, if need arises.

Speaking to The Federal, Malakareddy said, “The over-established leaders aspire for the CM seat. And they ensure that others, if they see them as rivals within the party, are unsettled in the process. With centralised leadership, the high command does not understand what’s happening on the ground and they only listen to those who are close to them.”

Malakareddy added that the party brought in an outsider like Siddaramaiah, who shifted from JD(S) and has no respect for the party’s principle or ideology. “He (Siddaramaiah) focused on promoting his cadres and many of the Congress leaders were sidelines in the process.”

Some argued that the senior leaders do not take the present Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President, Dinesh Gundu Rao, seriously as he lacked the ability to pull the team together. That indicates why the party relies heavily on people like Siddaramaiah.

One of the leaders, on condition of anonymity, said, “Leaders like DK Shivakumar, G Parameshwara, Mallikarjuna Kharge, and Siddaramaiah all aspire for the chief minister’s seat, and promote themselves instead of improving the party. People like Kharge and Shivakumar could guide the party and take it to another level. But their goals are different and they help only when they feel satisfied with a given post.”

For the party, which fights on secular lines, satisfying its minority sect leaders remains a challenge. While Baig, a Muslim leader, expressed concerns with the party for using minorities as mere vote bank, retired IPS officer and vice-president of KPCC, HT Sangiliana, quit the party recently citing injustice to the Christian community.

Coalition trouble

While the rift between juniors and seniors is one side of the coin, the coalition trouble is the other. Despite the Congress having more seats than the JD(S) it agreed to give the chief minister’s post to the JD(S), led by HD Kumaraswamy. Many leaders, including Baig, former transport minister Ramalinga Reddy, and rebel MLA and former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, expressed discontent over not getting cabinet berth. And with the party ceding seats to JD(S) in South Karnataka, many ground-level cadres failed to support the coalition candidate considering the damage it would cause to their personal growth at the grassroots level.

The clout for ‘Siddaramaiah as CM again’ grows despite the party, which faces frequent trouble with MLAs threatening to quit and bring down the government, agreeing to let the JD(S) lead the coalition. Senior leaders fail to control the cadres and leaders from making controversial statements. The party, whose survival depends on the LS results, will have to make quick corrections if it wants to stay in power.

C Motamma, KPCC vice president, said many of the scheduled caste leaders, including her, had at some point felt let down by the party, but worked in the larger interest to keep the BJP out of power. “I could not raise my voice in the state despite Sonia Gandhi’s support at the Centre. Somebody should give a ear to listen to our suggestions and concerns. There’s unity on stage but not off-stage,” she said.

Commenting on the situation, political analyst Harish Ramaswamy said that if the party loses power in the state and gets fewer than 10 seats in the Lok Sabha, many party workers and leaders may quit and it may take much longer for the Congress to recover from the downside it faces.