Ecstasy In K’taka, Agony In SC

Ecstasy In K’taka, Agony In SC Cong wins clear majority after 14 yrs, BJP reduced to joint 2nd with Gowda TIMES NEWS NETWORK  New Delhi: The Congress has scored a decisive victory in Karnataka, ousting the first BJP government in southern India and denting the perception that it was the hot favourite for the 2014 contest while potentially earning a breather for the Manmohan Singh government at a time when it is under siege over allegations of corruption and is having to fend off demands for resignations of its ministers.     Congress won 121 seats, eight above the majority mark, with a vote share of 41.6%, leaving the BJP far behind with a humbling 40 seats and a 20% vote share. Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s JD(S) also won 40 seats, recording an improvement over its previous performance but failing to realize its ambition to play the kingmaker in the state where fractured verdicts had seemed the norm.     BJP rebel B S Yeddyurappa’s fledgling KJP scored a measly six seats, but appeared to have contributed to BJP’s humiliation by taking away a big chunk of Lingayats who had been the saffron party’s steadfast supporters.     Congress’s impressive win was par for the pattern where voters have given clear mandates: for instance in UP, and could not have come at a better time for the party. The ruling party has been harried by rivals who have jumped on vulnerabilities arising from perception of corruption and non-governance, as well as the perception of a steady decline. It interpreted the change of guard in Bangalore as a reassuring sign that there is no overarching anti-corruption sentiment trained at Congress. As everything fell in place for Congress in Karnataka, it regained the bounce it had been lacking in the face of a paralyzed Parliament, bribery scam involving railway minister Pawan Bansal, impropriety of law minister Ashwani Kumar and a string of electoral defeats pointing to its dipping graph.     The party believes that the Karnataka mandate, read for voters’ anger against corruption like mining, land allotment and nepotism, would take the sheen off BJP’s positioning, and lost no time in questioning Gujarat CM Narendra Modi’s ability to swing the 2014 election for the saffron challenger.  MESSAGE FROM THE SOUTH  Tonic For Cong: Win breaks bad news cycle. That BJP lost because of graft & poor governance will strengthen claim that there’s no countrywide anger against Cong. Can claim ‘Modi magic’ is a myth  Downer For BJP: Saffronites lose only base in south that gave BJP 19 MPs last time. With tension with Nitish mounting, it undercuts BJP’s bid to be 2014 poll frontrunner Back To Yeddy? Undercut BJP but fared miserably himself. Will realize that it’s better to hang together with BJP. Modi’s ascendance may boost patch-up prospects Focus On Graft: Corruption remains hot-button topic. What has hurt BJP in Karnataka can impact Cong at Centre too. Lesson for both: voters will punish the corrupt Stability In Favour: After SP landslide in UP, clear majority for Congress in Karnataka suggests voters now prefer decisive outcome to give winner free run Share Swing:BJP was hurt by its former CM Yeddyuruppa’s breakway BSY, which took away 9.8% of votes. But it lost even otherwise: its total vote share came down by 13.9%. Cong’s gain of just 1.8% translated into 42 more seats. JD(S) upped its share 1.1% to 20%, a shade above BJP’s After K’taka, Dec poll test awaits Cong For Now, The Poll Victory In Karnataka Has Given Congress A Breather  New Delhi: Government spokesman and I&B minister Manish Tewari said, “The entire disruption of Parliament on the pretext of alleged corruption was a charade for the Karnataka elections. It has come a cropper as people saw through the BJP design.”     Significantly, the outcome did not come as a shocker to the BJP, although it was surprised by the magnitude of the defeat. The party had seemed resigned to a defeat after corruption represented by mining scams and constant bickering sapped the goodwill that helped the party form the first-ever government across the Vindhyas. Yeddyurappa’s departure had snuffed out chances of even a rearguard resistance.     Party sources, however, conceded that the scale of the defeat was a sobering reminder for the work that needs to be done on the ground in the lead-up to the 2014 battle.     Interestingly, even as Congress quickly dubbed the result as a reflection on Modi’s ability to be thegame-change for the BJP, saffron circles almost unanimously maintained that the humiliation will escalate the clamour for the Gujarat CM’s projection as the prime ministerial candidate. “It is inevitable,” said a senior party office-bearer when asked about the possibility of Modi being declared the PM candidate.     However, for many in the Congress, the Karnataka verdict was reassuring because they felt it suggested that the 2014 polls would be an aggregate of many battles to be fought in states ondiverse issues, rather than a gladiatorial contest with Modi leading the saffron charge.     The relief, however, was tempered by the worry that the victory may be interpreted as a go-ahead for persisting with the way that has resulted in scams which, many said, would be unfortunate as voters may be as inclined to punish malgovernance at the Centre as well when they get the chance in 2014.     Insiders hinted at possible correctives in due course, which could be in the form of Cabinet and organisational reshuffle. There are few takers for the two tainted ministers, Bansal and Kumar, though the holdout by the leadership has left many shocked.     The Congress victory may not have come at a better time, bedeviled as it is with corruption and policy paralysis at the Centre and facing an aggressive onslaught of Modi and BJP.     Siddaramaiah and Mallikarjuna Kharge are seen as front-runners for the chief minister’s post in Karnataka. They could have faced a tough challenge from state unit chief G Parameshwara but he lost.     The Karnataka results could help Congress shape the coming months which would involve attracting allies. The party is likely to cleave the polity along “communal” and “secular” lines, while toasting itself as the principal force to stop the saffron momentum. Though not Gujarat, Karnataka with aggressive RSS politics had emerged as the pocket of concern for the “secular” brigade that began to doubt Congress as the bulwark against BJP.     While it would help mobilise minorities behind the party, without the latter having to play an aggressive “secular” card that risks counter polarization, it could force reassessment among regional outfits whom Modi was seeking to attract with his pole position in the principal opposition.     Observers say much would also depend on how Congress fares in the December polls in Delhi, Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram: states evenly divided between Congress and BJP  K’taka loss set to derail BJP’s momentum  New Delhi:BJP’s big defeat in Karnataka on Wednesday will decelerate the momentum the saffron outfit is trying to drum up ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election. The drubbing in Karnataka is proof that the party can ruin its prospects without the assistance of an external force working against it, as the result served to confirm that relentless factional fights dividing the central leadership have percolated to the state level. While corruption was an important factor too, working against the party’s image in Karnataka, the rebellion of former CM B S Yeddyurappa, BJP’s most popular draw, inflicted a mortal blow to BJP’s prospects -- a fact that BJP’s parliamentary board belatedly acknowledged on Wednesday. “ Division of votes has affected us. Image of disunity, some forming separate party, continued media coverage have affected image of the party and the electoral outcome. We need to learn lessons from this,” is how party leader Venkaiah Naidu put it. TNN