The Lucky Commander
As the results of Karnataka Assembly polls started pouring in, the three Gandhis (Sonia, Rahul & Priyanka) were glued to the TV. It was during those relaxing moments where Sonia Gandhi appreciated the efforts put in by 80-year old party president Mallikarjun Kharge who addressed 36 public meetings. If insiders at 10 Janpath are to be believed, Priyanka congratulated her mother saying that the commander chosen by her has been lucky. Priyanka was right as Kharge delivered two states, one after the other, in a span of eight months of taking over the reins as Congress president. Kharge took charge on October 26, 2022 and delivered Himachal Pradesh. This was the first win for the Congress after a long drought on December 8, 2022. Five months later, on May 13, 2023 Kharge delivered a big state like Karnataka to the Gandhis. Karnataka was a litmus test of Kharge as it was his home state. Secondly, he had been unable to digest his defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the Assembly poll gave him another opportunity to make his mark at the national level. He was working hard to keep various factions together and made some tough decisions as well. The BJP leadership realized late in the day that Kharge can be a catalyst in bringing the Dalits and Muslims together in the state. This proved deadly for the BJP as backwards (read Siddharamaiah) and the Vokkalings who also chipped in, thanks to DK Shivakumar. It was DKS who succeeded in demolishing the bastion of Deve Gowda in three decades. Kharge may turn out to be a nemesis for the BJP as he has emerged a new Dalit leader on the horizon. The Congress can hope to bring a large number of Dalits back into its fold which had gone to other parties during the past 30-35 years. The Muslims who had switched over to the likes of Mayawatis and Owaisis, may come back to vote for Congress wherever its candidates are in a position to defeat the BJP.
BMC Polls go a for Toss
The cascading effects of Karnataka's humiliating defeat are clearly visible in the BJP. The ruling party was all set to declare holding of BMC polls immediately after the Karnataka Assembly polls. The state BJP Chief Chandra Shekhar Bawankule, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Mumbai BJP Chief Ashish Shelar and other leaders had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah where he asked them to start working aggressively on every municipal ward. Shah had given a 7-point program to the Maharashtra leaders to snatch the BMC from the Thackeray faction. The SC judgment may have given relief to the Shinde group to continue in office. But the legal battle in the SC and other forums will continue for a long time to come. PM Modi had also visited Mumbai and declared that a "triple engine government in the state is needed". But Karnataka results have put the plan in jeopardy. The BJP lost miserably in the Mumbai-Karnataka region where the majority of seats went to the Congress.
Why BJP lost deposit in Jalandhar bypoll
The BJP not only lost Karnataka, it also faced its worst in Punjab where its candidate in Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat lost his deposit. No doubt, the BJP increased its vote share by 4 per cent in the bypoll compared to the last Assembly elections in segments falling under this parliamentary seat. But Iqbal Singh Atwal (BJP) not only slipped to the 4th place, he lost his deposit as well. A candidate must get 1/6th of total valid votes polled to save deposit. But the BJP candidate failed to get the same. This was a second blow to the BJP in Punjab after its virtual rout in the Assembly polls in 2022. The saffron party severed ties with its most trusted ally for almost three decades on the three farm laws issue. With the Lok Sabha polls looming large, the BJP leadership may now go back to the Akali Dal once again. Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of the Akali Dal, is sitting pretty and smiling though his candidate had also been defeated. But he is happy as the Akali Dal candidate came 3rd after the AAP and Congress. No doubt, the SAD-BJP unity can change the scenario. But Badal is not in a mood to buy the bait as yet and is taking his own sweet time. The BJP's experiment to import leaders from the Congress and other parties failed to bring any dividend in Punjab.
Celebrations postponed
There is no dearth of leaders in the BJP who say that one defeat in Karnataka is of no consequence. But the party leadership is completely shaken. The first fall out of this defeat gave the cadre another surprise when the BJP leadership quietly shifted the date to start nation-wide celebrations of PM Modi's nine years as Prime Minister. All the Ministers were given a time frame to travel to dedicated areas and hold rallies etc to regale achievements of the Modi government during the nine years period. The celebrations were to begin from May 15 to June 15. Many leaders had booked their tickets to travel with the family and friends from June 20 onward. However, the BJP quietly shifted the dates of celebrations by a fortnight. The celebrations will now be held between May 30-June 30. No one was available to explain why this change!
