In its current avatar, few within the BJP would imagine calling this anything other than the "Modi model". But it also demonstrates a degree of foresight by party elders in building "stars" or in giving those "stars" a free rein to promote themselves, even if that has led to their own marginalisation. The BJP would argue this is borne out of democratic impulse; others may see it has hard political necessity - the need to create, virtually from scratch, a prominent set of "faces" in states overrun by legacy Congress stalwarts. Regardless of the allocation of credit, it has allowed the BJP to claw its way back into political relevance from the precipice it found itself in five years ago.
Rewind, for a moment, to 2009. The BJP was in almost as ruinous a state as the current Congress, perhaps in some ways even worse since it had lost two elections back to back. Its national leadership stood accused - from without and within - of disconnect from the popular mood, and of being caught up in the game of one-upmanship and self-preservation. (Jaswant Singh's letter, asking why key BJP election strategists were being rewarded with plum parliamentary posts despite the party's defeat comes to mind). At that time, few would have bet on its ability to re-emerge as a serious contender.
The BJP's eventual successful challenge to a United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II increasingly seen as ineffectual, elitist and corrupt came from BJP-run states: Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, tiny Goa and, of course, Gujarat. Building a narrative around chief ministers did several things at once: it helped take the governance ball away from the UPA - here were hands-on sons of soil leaders doing things, even if in some cases they were effectively implementing schemes conceived by the same Congress durbar. It acknowledged the new federalist assertion, with state's emerging as power centres. And it allowed the selection of a claimant for the big stage to emerge (or at least appear to emerge) from a merit-based jostling of provincial leaders, as opposed to an outcome pre-decided solely on the basis of dynasty.
Instead of sensing these shifts, in state after state, the Congress continued to install politically disenfranchised, Delhi-nominated satraps, condemned to a tenure of perpetual dependence and insecurity (the outgoing chief ministers of Maharashtra and erstwhile Andhra Pradesh come to mind). Or to inflict that insecurity even on its few strong leaders, by allowing rival leaders to keep pot of dissent boiling (Delhi, for instance). Hardly surprising then, that in a general election that increasingly became about the Modi Model vs the Nitish Model vs (briefly) the Amma Model, not a single Congress chief minister featured in the party's national publicity campaign.
Which brings me back to my interest in Karnataka. Siddaramaiah's nomination by his party to the high office seemed to buck the Congress trend. Here was a mass leader, representing a numerically significant but politically marginalised OBC caste (the Kurubas), an "import" from the Janata stream, all factors that made him an outlier in the Congress scheme of things. Moreover, even though the Karnataka elections were fought in the inchoate manner, which the Congress seems to inexplicably favour, with no declared CM candidate, once the results were out he demonstrated (unusually by Congress standards) no qualms in asserting himself, leaving the high command with little choice but to almost immediately announce his name without the humiliating wait that has marked previous appointments. Throw in the added advantage of helming one of India's better-developed states, and he had all the ingredients to jockey for a prominent space in the current competitive akhada of provincial leaders.
But instead, the initial brio seems to have rapidly deflated after assuming office. The only news filtering out of Karnataka appears to be of petty internal squabbling and power struggles. I am too much at a distance to gauge whether Siddaramaiah had it in him at all or whether the culture of his adopted party, adept at stunting any perceived challenge to the First Family, proved too much for him. Having said that, if there is some path-breaking transformation taking shape in Karnataka that has bypassed the Delhi press corps, this might be the time to unveil it. After the results from Maharashtra and Haryana, Siddaramaiah has become, unwittingly, the only Congress chief minister of a leading Indian state.
As this goes to print, one hears of a new app being released by the Karnataka government to enable access to every major government service on a cellphone. Could this, finally, be the first glimmering of a Karnataka Model? I would advise against holding one's breath.
The writer anchors the ground reportage show Truth vs Hype on NDTV 24X7