Karnataka: Aggressive HDK in Opposition benches leaves Congress embarrassed

His party may have finished a distant third in the Karnataka assembly but Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (HDK) seems to be at his aggressive best, as he keeps attacking the newly-formed Congress government.

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yet to put its house in order after being booted out of power and unable to elect a legislature party leader, it is now left to HDK, as Kumaraswamy is widely known, to take up the self-appointed role of the Leader of Opposition.

Needless to say, HDK has been firing away endlessly at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, accusing his son of indulging in corruption, and mocking the Congress for not implementing its election pledges.

The latest salvo he hurled at the Congress regime was over the suicide bid by a KSRTC bus conductor in Mandya who was apparently unwilling to accept a transfer to another place.

HDK launches attacks

HDK embarrassed the Mandya-in-charge minister and his political rival N Chenuvarayaswamy as well as the government. Later, the BJP joined the JD-S leader in staging a noisy protest.

“Government officers and employees are being threatened with sacking or transfer,” Kumaraswamy charged and connected this issue with corruption. The Congress did not find it easy to rebut HDK’s charges.

Also read: Karnataka Budget: CM Siddaramaiah says Rs 52,000 Cr to be spent for 5 key poll promises

HDK had hoped that the May election will lead to a hung assembly and that he will end up cobbling a coalition with the BJP and become the chief minister again. In reality, his party could win just 19 seats.

Although the defeat was demoralising, HDK quickly bounced back and began to actively find faults with the Congress government even as the BJP, with 65 MLAs, has failed to pick a Leader of the Opposition – a post it is entitled to – due to continuing infighting in the ranks.

Congress embarrassed

First, HDK demanded that the Congress immediately implement the five “guarantees” it had vowed to implement from the first day of taking office. He raked up the issue even before the main Opposition BJP could wake up to it.

HDK also accused the Congress of distributing coupons worth ₹3,000 each during elections and said this was why his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy lost in Ramanagar.

He launched a major attack on the Siddaramaiah government on July 5, alleging that the chief minister’s son Yatindra was behind the transfers of officials and that he was indulging in corruption.

“The Centre has GST and Karnataka has YST (Yathindra Siddaramaiah Tax). There are midnight meetings with officials and a transfer syndicate is responsible for cash for postings and corruption,” he alleged.

He alleged that ₹30 lakh was being asked for every transfer.

Also read: Karnataka BJP: As fortunes sag, leadership banks on Yediyurappa for rescue

One-man army

When the budget session started on Monday (July 3), he continued attacking the Congress and flashed a pen drive from his pocket whose contents he vowed to make public “when the time comes”.

Four days later, HDK pressed the Speaker of the Assembly to give him permission to play the pen drive – triggering a war of words between the JD(S) and the Congress.

“It looks like HDK and JD(S) are single-handedly fighting the Congress,” one MLA who did not want to be identified remarked.

HDK, his aides say, normally comes to the House well-prepared, irrespective of whether he is the chief minister or in the Opposition ranks. As a first-time MLA, he toppled a Congress government led by N Dharam Singh to form a government with the BJP’s veteran BS Yediyurappa or BSY in 2006 and became the chief minister.

Later, when the BJP formed a government in 2008, HDK released documents of illegal de-notification, triggering developments which forced BSY to resign and get arrested.

Fought BJP as well

When he was the chief minister for a second time, he released an audio exposing the BJP’s attempt to topple his government by poaching his MLAs. Even in 2022, he exhibited several documents much to the embarrassment of the ruling BJP.

Some says that losing power and not being in a position to control the state politics for the next five years may have turned HDK aggressive.

Of course, he himself is facing a litany of issues. But there is no sign that he is bothered by any allegation. His personality, some feel, may be shaped by his father – JD(S) founder and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda.