Three months on, 'Opposition' eludes Karnataka: Why BJP can't pick leader

At least one of the issues - who should be Leader of the Opposition - was on the agenda when Basava Raj Bommai met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi last week

“The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has forgotten how to be the Opposition,” said a supporter gloomily, as the Budget session of the Karnataka Assembly ended on July 21 with only an interim leader of the Opposition in place (the party could not decide who it should be); a colourless defence of itself in the Assembly as the Congress government reversed decision after decision taken by the previous regime; and speeches that lacked punch. “If anything, H D Kumaraswamy attacked the government more effectively than the BJP,” the supporter added.

At least one of the issues — who should be Leader of the Opposition — was on the agenda when the previous chief minister and interim leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Basava Raj Bommai, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi last week. However, no name has been announced  — neither for the Assembly nor for the Council. BJP state unit President Nalin Kateel’s term ended before the Assembly elections. No replacement has been named. Observers say the three appointments are linked.

Sandeep Shastri, vice-chancellor of Jagran Lakecity University and a veteran researcher of Karnataka politics, said: “An entire Assembly session is over without a leader in either House. If there is to be preparation for next year’s Lok Sabha poll, the position of the BJP state president becomes critical.”

He explained the delay. “Three factors are going to define and decide the decisions. Factor number one is social arithmetic — you need to continue to hold on to the Lingayat vote, you need to win over the OBC (other backward classes) vote, and you cannot ignore the Vokkaliga vote: So, all these factors will come into play. There is not a shadow of doubt that either the leader of the Opposition position or the state unit presidency will need to go to the Lingayat community; and the other significant caste — the backward castes, the Vokkaliga or the Dalit — will claim the other. So that balancing act in terms of social arithmetic will have to be done. Secondly, geography becomes important. North Karnataka was the mainstay of the BJP. And Old Mysore is where they want to make inroads into. So there will be balancing here as well. They would possibly choose one leader from Old Mysore and one from North Karnataka; but the biggest dilemma the party faces is: How much would you want to break with the past, and how much do you want to continue with the past?

It is the last that is not clear to workers. Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya and BJP General Secretary Vinod Tawde were named observers to oversee the election of the leader of the Opposition. But both gave their recommendations to the central leadership, after which there was no forward movement. This led Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to comment that the BJP being unable to elect the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly shows there are groups in the outfit. He said it was the “most undisciplined” political party. Bommai would have been a link with the past. That he has not been named for any position, but nor has anyone else, is sending confusing signals to the organisation.

It becomes worse when the Congress government systematically dismantles the edifice of BJP-driven policy. Although the BJP’s B S Yeddyurappa has charged the Congress with reneging on three of the five election promises made in the run-up to the Assembly elections, the government has kept up the demolition drive: It has announced the repeal of the state’s Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022, — popularly known as the anti-conversion law — which was one of the most controversial pieces of legislation ushered in during the previous BJP regime. The state Cabinet has decided to reverse the changes made to Kannada and social studies school textbooks last year, including lessons on Hindutva ideologues. The Cabinet has decided to repeal the BJP government’s 2020 amendments to the Agriculture Produce Marketing Act, which were opposed by a number of farmer groups. 

A Bill repealing the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Act is imminent. Basically, the Congress is firing on all cylinders as it replaces the BJP government’s priorities with its own.
 

This was only to be expected. But what workers find frustrating is that the party is unable to mount an attack, criticising the Congress’s own compromises: The Annabhagya scheme, which should have been a free rice scheme, has been turned into a cash direct benefit transfer idea because the central government turned down the state’s request for more rice. “Opposing the scheme would have been bad politics. So the question we should have put to the state government is: Did you ask the Centre for rice before announcing the scheme? Or was it just shooting in the dark and hoping for the best?”

The Congress also announced a free-electricity scheme but later added riders to it by putting a cap of 200 units per meter. The party promised a stipend for all unemployed graduates. But it has now scaled that back to apply only to those who graduated in 2022-23. “We needed someone who would energetically raise these issues,” said a worker.

Shastri said the BJP was capable of springing a surprise: So it is thinking hard about the right choice of the people it should appoint to the vacant positions. But as time goes by, opportunities will slip out of hand. The state unit of the BJP is painfully conscious of this.