Political party infighting is not a new thing in India as we have seen the family dramas in politics in many states. How Chandrababu Naidu came into power, the current ongoing fight (may be dramatic) in the Samajwadi Party in UP, Aam Admi Party infighting in Delhi (Yogendra Yadav and Prashanth Bhushan saga), how Congress got divided and became Indira Congress, name any political party we have examples of infighting and accusations inside the party. BJP is not new to get into the list of these parties as we have seen how Uma Bharathi went out forming a new party, Keshubhai Patel, who fielded candidates against BJP in Gujarat, Yeddyurappa went out to start KJP from BJP in Karnataka.
But let’s see the current status of political parties in Karnataka and how they are ready to face the upcoming elections in Karnataka. Congress won a majority in Karnataka all because of BJP infighting and Yeddyurappa, who formed KJP and contested election, which made BJP lose in most of the seats in 2013. Later, before Loksabha election in 2014 Yeddyurappa came back to BJP after the change in a central leadership from Advani camp to Amit shah camp.
In Loksabha BJP won 17 MP seats in Karnataka. Thanks to Narendra Modi wave and also an enthusiastic NaMo brigade group which ran a campaign comprising young volunteers. Many took long leaves from office to campaign for Modi and was part of NaMo brigade. People had many hopes from state BJP, which had just come out of infighting to work for the betterment of the state on central level.
In 2017 just a year before assembly election, we see BJP in the same mode as they were at 2012/2103 before state elections. Now the fight is between Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa. As an opposition party in Karnataka BJP is failing to reach the public with the wrongdoings of current state congress government. It had ample of issues to tackle the current government in the state but it failed. The reason is well known, as there is no interest towards state and party volunteers seen in the current top leadership of state BJP. Any leader who builds boundaries in politics and don’t take critics will start his own end in politics. The so called loyal people of leaders will always praise them and mask leaders to understand the reality. In politics you should always meet new people every day including your critics to grow as a leader. The day you put boundaries is the day you start failing as a leader. Let us just see the issues which state BJP could have taken as an opposition party in Karnataka:
- No clarity by the Government has been given on Global Investors Meet Investment, like whether the investment have touched the ground and the status of those investments and the opposition, i.e., BJP has failed to hit hard on this issue.
- Bangalore is the city which is known to the world today and also the city which gets revenue to the state. But the state government has failed to give back the share to Bangalore and improve the infrastructure for new investments.
- North Karnataka is in the same condition without any improvements and this was not taken up in any legislative session by the opposition.
- No one fought for the honest officials who committed suicides. No satisfactory reasons or actions taken later and as an opposition party, BJP could not get justice done.
- CM did not go to China when he was invited by the Prime minister and as opposition BJP did not take up the issue and reach people how the state development was ignored.
- State government failure in solving Kalasa Banduri issue. Inactive opposition in the state and also lacking in convincing capabilities of BJP MP’s it was portrayed as a central responsibility by state government.
- Law and order collapse and series of murder of political activists was not taken seriously and which also shows how serious leaders are about the followers of their party.
- Government machinery misused by sons of prominent ministers and appointed advisers. This issue again was not taken up by BJP.
- Lack of coordination with a supreme court lawyer and state government in Cauvery issue. BJP, too missed upon this.
- The LED bulb project was hijacked by the state government and projected as a state project.
- Farmers suicide and state government’s inability in handling draught issue in North Karnataka.
- Central ministers behaving like they are central ministers from different state and not taking central government policies to people.
The above few issues are what comes to mind, but there were many more opportunities which could have shown how not-so-serious the BJP is about Karnataka state and their preparation for the upcoming state election. CM Siddaramaiah himself sacked 14 ministers after 3 years of governance, which shows half the number of ministers were not working up to the expectation. Today in Karnataka we don’t have any state leaders who have a vision for Karnataka state in any political party. We don’t see any leader talking about the vision for Karnataka and Bangalore, as to get Karnataka to top position in investment.
There is a big anti incumbency in a state which BJP should use if they are serious about the development of the state. Start talking about theier vision which will bring radical development in the state if they win the next election. Infighting will not yield any benefit for the party and state. Yeddyurappa should take along all the leaders as he is the current state chief and central ministers should reach out to people till Taluk level with the central policies.
Central ministers have drastically failed to do any remarkable work, also failing in bringing center’s policies to people. No one from the opposition is questioning them. This failure has to be taken seriously and the same should be rectified sooner for the betterment of the party.
