Cong misread Gowda's ambitions for son

Sheer miscalculation by the Congress central leadership about JD (S) President HD Deve Gowda's move was responsible for the state of flux in Karnataka politics today.

Overconfident after a good show in local body elections, the Congress gave a short shrift to Gowda in the mistaken belief that he will never tie up with the BJP.

Although the former Prime Minister would still have people believe that it was his son who sought to engineer the fall of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the state, there are no buyers for this argument at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi.

"We under-estimated his ambitions for his son. We never really thought that he would go to the extent of compromising his ideology to install his son as the chief minister. It was a shock to us," said an AICC general secretary.

When Gowda was in Delhi recently to complain about the violation of coalition dharma by the Congress, he was treated with sniggers and snide remarks at the Congress headquarters. Success in local body elections had given so much swagger to the Congress that it simply refused to relent on its efforts to ally with Siddaramaiah in forming local governments, leaving Gowda fuming.

Senior Congress leaders from Karnataka had told the Business Standard last week that the party would prefer dissolution of the state Assembly as the alliance with Gowda had become a big burden, with the latter shooting off his mouth every now and then to embarrass the Congress.

As per Congress calculations, the party was on the upswing while the JD(S) and BJP were fast losing ground. Their estimates were based on local body elections, though.

What the Congress leaders did not conjecture was the political manouvering capability of Gowda, whose pride was apparently hurt by continuous neglect by the Congress leadership including the High Command.