BENGALURU:
Karnataka has sent 421 members to Parliament in 16 elections since 1951, including four elections when it was called Mysore, but its electorate has allowed only one party to sweep all seats in any year — in 1971 when
Congress under Indira Gandhi
won all 27 seats.
Karnataka, unlike neighbours Andhra and Tamil Nadu, has failed to build a strong regional party which made an impact nationally.
But no national party — Congress, Janata Party or BJP — has managed to sweep elections is because the state has seen consistent efforts by leaders to build either regional parties or alternatives to national parties.
Whether it was socialist parties like Praja Socialist Party (PSP) and Samajwadi Socialist Party (SSP), or parties like Lok Sewak Sangh (LSS) led by Gandhian Shivamurthy Swami and Swatantra Party (SWA) led by C Rajagopalachari, experts say Karnataka politics has been punctuated by such efforts that often spoiled the chances of bigger parties.
Even in 1971, Congress under Indira Gandhi faced stiff opposition from the syndicate led by the likes of K Kamaraj from Tamil Nadu and S Nijalingappa in Karnataka.
The decision to oppose Indira from within was taken at a meeting in Lalbagh, Bengaluru a couple of years earlier.
While Indira with the slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’ managed to win across the country, there were allegations of malpractice a few years later. Indira’s efforts to fight what she perceived as a political onslaught eventually pushed India into the Emergency.
“From LSS to Swatantra in the ’60s and ’70s to Lok Shakti built by Ramakrishna Hegde and Karnataka Congress Paksha (KCP) by S Bangarappa, there have been serious efforts in Karnataka, but none, including those emerging from Janata Party and the movement, have succeeded,” said political analyst S Mahadev Prakash.
Other experts said since none of these parties had larger-than-life leaders, they could not make a sustained impact across the state.
Parties like Swatantra and LS won five and three seats in elections that their party peaked, while others like PSP and SSP also dented chances of big parties.
All along, Congress had an upper hand, winning most seats until the 1990s, when BJP emerged in the state.
Since then, the fight has been between these two parties, while Janata Party and Janata Dal, and its later avatars JD(S) and JD(U) have had a limited presence.
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