INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The sordid drama enacted by the BJP in Karnataka has finally come to an end with the ignominious exit of
its three-day Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa
His downfall was a foregone conclusion unless, as the BJP leaders camping in Bengaluru were claiming, its recourse to the most shameless act
of poaching other parties' MLAs succeeded
Since that did not happen because the MLAs refused to be bought, the exercise sank into the septic tank
Yet the Karnataka episode will go down in as one of the sorriest chapters in our democratic history.The campaign for the assembly elections
The Prime Minister threw all decency to the winds, as he did during the Gujarat assembly elections, and attacked his rivals in a language
which did not behoove his high office
His charge that Generals Cariappa and Thimaiyya were insulted by the then Congress regime fell short of facts
The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats; the Congress party's tally come down from 122 to 78 and the JD(S) was placed
The BJP was seven short of majority in a house of 221 because elections were postponed in two assembly seats and Kumaraswami had won from
great heroes of the electoral battlefield
Let us look at some cold facts to see whether this indeed was an exceptional performance by the BJP.The 2018 election can and should be
compared only with the 2008 election because in 2013, Yeddyurappa had split the BJP, formed a new party and contested the elections under
This had reduced the BJP's tally to only 40 seats in the assembly
In the 2013 election, the Congress party had won 122 seats and secured a clear majority in the 224-member assembly
heroes of the electoral battlefield
(File)Let us go back to 2008 with which alone a valid comparison can be made between the performance of the Congress party and BJP
In that year, the BJP had won 110 seats with a vote share of 33.86%
The Congress party had won only 86 seats but with a higher vote share of 35.3%
Modi and Shah were nowhere on the scene then as far as the Karnataka elections were concerned
Yet the BJP won 110 seats
Do you remember anyone shouting from the housetops about the sterling leadership qualities of Rajnath Singh and his superb management skills
as he was the party president then It was celebrated as a significant victory no doubt, as for the first time, the BJP came to power on its
own south of the Vindhyas
Yet, they are the greatest ever.A majority of the observers of the Karnataka scene in this election were predicting that the Congress party
had an edge in the elections
And they were right,because the party was able to improve its share of votes from 36.6% in 2103 to 38% in 2018
But it lost out on the number of seats
The BJP's strike record was better than that of the Congress party in 2008 also, as it was in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 in which it
mud immediately after the announcement of the results
It was the single-largest party no doubt, but still seven short of a majority
But the Congress party acted with alacrity and quickly offered the Chief Ministership to HD Kumaraswamy, the leader of Janta Dal(S)
They even informed the governor of this post-poll alliance which had a clear majority in the assembly as together they had 116 members
disregard of the principle on which the BJP came to power in Goa, Manipur, Meghalaya and Bihar, and formed the government in Jammu and
Kashmir, rejected the claim of the Congress-JDS combine, and in a stunning move which defied all logic invited the BJP leader Yeddyurappa in
the late evening of May 17 to take oath as Chief Minister the next morning
This was clearly meant to pre-empt any court intervention
Further, he gave Yeddyurappa 15 days to prove his majority on the floor of the House
It's another matter that the Supreme Court agreed to hear the petition of the Congress-JD(S) combine during the night itself and while it
It also ordered that the pro-tem speaker would conduct the floor test in full glare of the media.The pro-tem speaker by convention is the
senior-most member of the House
This was violated with impunity by Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and more so by the Governor, who, instead of appointing RV Deshpande who is
the senior-most MLA in the House, appointed KG Bopaiah as the pro-tem speaker
KG Bopaiah was the speaker earlier also and the Supreme Court had passed strictures against him in a case were he had favoured
(File)All these moves were clearly being orchestrated from Delhi by the Modi-Shah team
This was in accordance with the new doctrine in the BJP that elections must be won at any cost
Ethical considerations, norms and traditions of democracy do not matter
Further, even if BJP does not get a majority, it must form the government by hook or by crook
Yet the spokespersons of the BJP will climb the pulpit and preach sermons to others on ethics and morality.On May 19, Shanta Kumar, one of
the senior-most leaders of the BJP announced that he would not contest the next Lok Sabha election
When asked about the goings-on in Karnataka, he said that in 1982, the BJP had won 29 seats in the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections and
the Congress Party had won 31
Six independent MLAs were ready to support the BJP to form the government
Atal Bihari Vajpayee had then announced that the BJP would sit in the opposition rather than resort to horse-trading
Where is that BJP todayUnfortunately, today's BJP is not the BJP of Atal-Advani, which I had joined
It has been taken over by people to whom nothing matters more than power
I am glad I am out of it.The political mood in the country has changed dramatically after the events of Karnataka
It has shown that the BJP can be outwitted at its own game
The ball is now squarely in the court of the parties in opposition.(Yashwant Sinha is a former Union Minister of External
Affairs.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author
The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of TheIndianSubcontinent and TheIndianSubcontinent does not assume
any responsibility or liability for the same.
