Siddaramaiah: The new sultan of Karnataka

After initial lacklustre performance, CM Siddaramaiah has consolidated his hold on the party and govt

Come elections, come controversies. As Karnataka heads for the Assembly elections next year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has raised concerns over the government deciding to celebrate Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan’s birth anniversary on November 10.

First came the missive by Union Minister Anantkumar Hegde, a parliamentarian from the state, to the Siddaramaiah government for not inviting him for the event to remember the warrior king, who died fighting the British in 1799. Hegde had called Tipu, known as the Tiger of Mysore, a “brutal killer, wretched fanatic and mass rapist”. BJP State President 

B S Yeddyurappa too had asked for a cancellation of the celebrations.

But their outrage was short-lived. In his speech to commemorate the diamond jubilee celebrations of Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat, President Ram Nath Kovind said Tipu died a heroic death fighting the British. “He was a pioneer in the development and use of Mysuru rockets in warfare. This technology was later adopted by the Europeans,” said Kovind, who rose in the ranks of the BJP before he was elected to the country's top office. His statement and the subsequent revelation of old photos of Yeddyurappa holding a sword and participating at an event when he visited Tipu Sultan’s tomb in December 2012, became an embarrassment for the BJP.  At that time, Yeddyurappa had quit BJP and formed Karnataka Janata Paksha but soon returned to the party to lead it in the following year’s Assembly elections

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah questioned Yeddyurappa on why he dressed as “Tipu” and maintained Hedge would be invited to the event in accordance with protocol.

Siddaramaiah, a mass leader from Mysuru, began celebrating the Tipu anniversary three years ago to revive the memories of the warrior. At that time, he was battling infighting in the Congress and was more focused on being a campaign manager to help the party win elections rather than running the administration.

This also gave hope to the BJP, which had seen Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister riding a wave on the promise of change. By opposing the Tipu celebrations, the BJP was looking to keep the issue alive, hoping to consolidate its vote base to return to power for its gateway to the South.

Since then, much water has flowed down the river Cauvery.

Siddaramaiah, who built his political career in the Janata Parivar, had shifted loyalties to the Congress in 2006 after former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda favoured his son as CM over Siddaramaiah. In the Congress, he launched AHINDA — the Kannada acronym for the minorities, backward classes, and Dalits — and positioned himself as their leader. 

The state BJP government's misadventure with the Reddy brothers (Janardhana Reddy and Karunakar Reddy, who were allegedly involved in illegal mining) and the subsequent corruption charges against Yeddyurappa gave Siddaramaiah the platform to lead the Congress to power in 2013. The first three years of governance was all but lacklustre for Siddaramaiah, who got the name “Nidderamaiah”, which is a play on the Kannada word Nidhe, meaning sleep. He has had a bad record in improving infrastructure in Bengaluru and has instead focused on rural Karnataka.

But the shrewd politician that he is, Siddaramaiah trumped the BJP in two bypolls in the Mysuru region on what everyone was calling a semi-final before the Assembly elections next year. The BJP’s efforts failed even with former Chief Minister SM Krishna joining and campaigning for the party.

Since then, Siddaramaiah has consolidated his hold on the party and the government.

His move of supporting a separate religion for the Lingayats has rattled the BJP, which has a huge support base in the dominant community of North Karnataka. Siddaramaiah has also supported the movement to protect Kannada, the local language, and turned the debate into a Hindi imposition versus protecting the local language, which has put the BJP on the back foot. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President G Parameshwara said in a recent interview: “Naturally, a government, (of) whichever party, has to definitely go with the people. It has so happened that we are going for elections next year. Definitely, the language has to be protected.” 

While Siddaramaiah is going strong, the BJP has not done better. While the two top state leaders, Yeddyurappa and 

K S Eshwarappa, have stopped fighting publicly, their differences continue to unsettle the party with less than six months for the finals.