lok-sabha-elections

Updated: May 01, 2019 17:40 IST

Though there are over 20 days for the Lok Sabha results to be declared, the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) alliance seems to have been overcome by nerves with leaders from both parties outdoing one another to find reasons for the lack of enthusiasm among cadres for alliance candidates.

On Wednesday, state higher education minister GT Deve Gowda fired a fresh salvo when he said that his party workers in the Mysuru constituency had supported BJP candidate Pratap Simha and not CH Vijayshankar, the Congress candidate. “In terms of the coalition, both sides are at fault. We should have fielded our candidates separately and fought the elections,” he said.

GT Deve Gowda, a senior JD(S) leader, said the seat-sharing discussions went on for too long. “Our leaders should have completed everything two months before the polls… In some places [the coalition] worked well, but in some other places, for example at Udbur here, it was like panchayat polls where Congress workers worked for their party and our workers supported BJP,” GT Deve Gowda said.

This is not the first instance where leaders from both parties, which formed an alliance on May 15 last year, have taken pot shots at one another. The digs have served as regular reminders of the turbulent nature of the coalition between two parties that have been at each other’s throats in the southern Old Mysuru region, where the BJP is a marginal force.

Also read| ‘It’s unfortunate that Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Kerala, against Left’: Sitaram Yechury

Criticising GT Deve Gowda, Karnataka state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao said the statement seemed to reveal that the minister had not delivered on the responsibility given to him.

“The coalition was formed a long time ago and it was also decided that we would contest Mysuru quite a while ago. I don’t understand how he has worked because his statement is objectionable,” Gundu Rao said.

He said that the in 80% of the areas the coalition has worked well, but in some in some places like Kolar, Mandya and Mysuru there have been problems.

Gundu Rao’s admission that there were problems that the parties could not overcome in the Old Mysuru region does not portend well for the coalition. According to a senior JD(S) leader, who did not wish to be named, the coalition was unlikely to survive if the results for the 28 Lok Sabha seats were not in its favour.

“It is obvious to anybody who is involved in the coalition that adverse results will mean the end of the coalition government in the state, we will just not be able to survive it,” the JD(S) leader said.

The problem is also compounded by the fact that the coalition’s apprehensions aren’t limited to the Mysuru seat, that former chief minister Siddaramaiah had set out to win at all costs to restore his pride after he was defeated by Deve Gowda in the

Chamundeshwari seat in the district in last year’s state polls.

In Mandya, where chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil fought against independent candidate veteran actor Sumalatha, wife of the late film star and former union minister MH Ambareesh, there are fears that a surprise upset might be in the offing.

Also read: ‘I’m boycotting you’: Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy tells media

Mandya turned into a prestige battle and some Congress leaders were accused by the chief minister of not having supported his son. State food and civil supplies minister BZ Zameer Ahmed admitted to as much on Wednesday. “Apart from Mandya, there were no problems anywhere. Even there, Congress leaders just sat at home, they didn’t work for Sumalatha,” he said.

The BJP, which is waiting in the wings to form the government should the coalition collapse, claimed that this was an admission that the coalition had fared poorly in the state.

Former deputy chief minister R Ashok of the BJP said: “There is a Modi wave primarily in Karnataka. GT Deve Gowda has given voice to the opinion of the people of the state. The workers of JD(S) seem to have decided that this time they would vote for the nation and this statement has made it clear that the coalition is losing here.”

With 104 MLAs out of 222, the BJP is only nine short of a majority in the 224-member assembly. The coalition, meanwhile, enjoys the support of 117 MLAs at present, including the Speaker. Along with the Lok Sabha polls, leaders in the state are also keeping a close watch closely at the by-elections to the Kundgol and Chincholi assembly seats, voting for which will be held on May 19, and results will be declared on May 23.