Karnataka: Indiscipline plagues both BJP, Congress
Saturday June 16, 2012 06:37:31 PM,
V.S. Karnic, IANS
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Bangalore: Karnataka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition
Congress are facing the same problem - indiscipline, and it seems
this malaise will only worsen as the state is set for assembly
polls in less than a year.
That BJP is everything but a disciplined organisation has been
proved several times in Karnataka since it came to power for the
first time in May 2008.
As it prepares to bid for a second term in office in the face of
various scandals its leaders are involved in, the party can only
hope that better sense will prevail among its members.
The Congress is yet again revelling in the scenario of one win
followed by many losses and severe embarrassments.
Forget adhering to ideals, more and more BJP and Congress members
are not even bothered about being loyal to the party. They
exhibited this trait in great style in the June 11 elections to
the 11 state legislative council seats elected by the legislative
assembly members.
Despite the party whip and each member being told to whom they
have to vote, 16 legislators -- 12 of the BJP and four of Congress
cross-voted. One Congress legislator made his vote invalid.
Though all six BJP nominees got elected, the party had suffer the
humiliation of two of them winning on second preference votes,
though all should have won on first preference vote.
The BJP has 121 members in the 225-member assembly and each
candidate needed 19 votes to win.
The Congress' plight was more shocking. Though it has 71 members
and could ensure easy victory for three candidates, it had put up
four candidates in the hope of garnering support from five
Independents and some cross-voting by BJP and Janata Dal-Secular
members.
Of the four, the party had named three as "official" candidates
and told its legislators on who will vote for which nominee.
Instead of getting votes of Independents, the party was stunned as
one of its "official" candidates, Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi, lost while
the fourth "unofficial" Congress candidate M. R. Seetaram sailed
through.
More humiliation was in store for both the major parties as
JD-S-backed Independent candidate, Bairathy Suresh, won with the
highest number of 23 first preference votes.
Clearly the 16 BJP and Congress members who cross-voted had
preferred to cast their votes for an outsider than their own party
nominees.
The JDS with 26 legislators not only got one of its members
elected but benefited from cross voting by BJP and Congress to see
the candidate backed by it also win.
The BJP and the Congress can do little with the cross-voters as
the election was by secret ballot, though both the parties are now
bravely talking of tracking down the "betrayers" to punish them.
The severe embarrassment to Congress came when the party was
gung-ho about winning the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat in a
by-poll held March this year.
That victory was, indeed, a morale booster for the party as the
seat was vacated by BJP's D.V. Sadananda Gowda after becoming the
chief minister in August last year succeeding the party's scam-hit
first chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.
The Congress had begun to hold forth that the Udupi-Chikmagalur
outcome was a pointer to the winds of change blowing in its favour.
Its own legislators have, now, taken the wind out of their party's
trumpets, though BJP too is whining that the large scale cross
voting should make national political parties "introspect" over
the "declining standards in public life".
With its first chief minister himself caught in around a dozen
corruption and illegal land scams and another 20 legislators,
including some ministers, facing several cases of land grab and
kickbacks, state BJP leaders are merely indulging in wishful
thinking of "introspection" and "declining standards".
(V. S. Karnic
can be contacted at vs.karnic@ians.in)
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