Karnataka: Sparring workers give Congress, JD(S) the jitters

BENGALURU: With political temperatures rising, allies Congress and JD(S) will introduce their candidates for the Lok Sabha polls as “coalition candidates” and not as nominees of individual parties. A formal announcement to this effect will be made during a joint public rally to be presided over by AICC president Rahul Gandhi in Bengaluru on March 31. The move comes with the realisation that booth-level foot soldiers of the two parties do not see eye to eye notwithstanding the camaraderie of their leaders in public.
Discordant voices in the two parties have only grown louder in the Old Mysuru region where workers of the two parties have been at each other’s throats for decades.Under the seat-sharing agreement, Congress will field candidates in 20 Lok Sabha constituencies and the JD(S) in the remaining eight, including Mandya and Hassan where rivalries are at its fiercest.
Admitting that discontent is brewing on the ground, a senior Congress leader said: “Our party workers have announced that they will not work for the JD(S) in Hassan, Mandya and Tumakuru. We are looking at new models for problem-solving and dialogue as we are low on time.”
The disgruntlement prompted JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda and Congress strongman Siddaramaiah to appeal jointly to party leaders last week. “Please tell party workers to forget their differences and work together with the sole intention of defeating the BJP,” they said.
But not all are enthused. In Mandya, Congress workers defied orders by participating in a procession accompanying independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh when she filed her nomination last week. Sumalatha is taking on chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil.
JD(S) leaders maintain that at least half-a-dozen former Congress MLAs in Mandya are working behind the scenes to ensure Nikhil’s defeat. Confronted by the arduous task of winning over local leaders, Kumaraswamy has decided to reserve three days of his campaign time for Nikhil.
In Hassan, the situation is getting personal, with local Congress leaders slamming seniors for forging a coalition with Gowda and allowing his grandson Prajwal Revanna to contest. Hassan district Congress leaders, when summoned by Siddaramaiah to iron out differences, said: “We will support Prajwal only if his father (public works minister) Revanna, who is known to be religious, swears in the name of the god that he will not trouble us in future.”
In Tumakuru, Congressmen are not in favour of Gowda’s candidature. Sitting Congress MP SP Muddahanumegowda, who is miffed that the seat has gone to the JD(S), has indicated that he could contest as an independent.
The biggest challenge before the Congress and JD(S) leaders now is to convince party workers to cooperate, failing which the BJP will take advantage of the split. A JD(S) leader said: “We too will make a few compromises and accommodate Congressmen in constituencies that JD(S) is contesting. We are thinking of fielding Congressman Pramod Madhwaraj in Udupi-Chikkamagaluru and BL Shankar from Bengaluru North as quid pro quo.”