Bengaluru: Having been accused of selling tickets during the just concluded assembly polls and spoiling the party’s chances of crossing the 50-seat mark, Janata Dal(S) state unit president, H.D. Kumaraswamy is still a lucky man. He will be the new opposition leader in the Karnataka assembly.
As those close to him put it, no outsider can get any ‘inside’ information from him, but he will surely obtain information about his rivals which he does not mind using to land a punch on his rivals in public. That is Kumaraswamy’s style of politics whether you agree with it or not.
When he speaks, listeners are inevitably carried away by his flow of thoughts which is why he is a great crowd puller. He loves to be in the midst of people through the day and night and is a mass leader no doubt. In an interview with Deccan Chronicle, the former CM spoke about what went wrong during the elections and what is in store for him.
Here are excerpts from the interview.
Are you happy with the performance of your party?
In the eyes of the common man, our party performed very well. We got more votes than BJP and more seats than 2008 and people are content with that. But  personally, I was shocked to see the results. I have not come out of shock .
Wasn’t it expected?
We lost four seats by less than 500 votes, another four by less than 1,500 votes. In Doddaballapur, Tarikere and Gauribidanur, JD (S) rebels won. Had we allotted tickets properly, we would have won more seats.
A day before counting, you predicted that your party would win at least 70 seats. What went wrong?
My father (H.D. Deve Gowda) could not campaign everywhere. Because of the single-phase poll, I could not cover all the constituencies well. Still, the campaign took off well, other leaders could not match our speed. Then, the media bombarded us with election surveys predicting very few seats for our party.
 
This influenced the voters and made them vote against us. They might have thought that since the JD (S) would get less seats, there was no point in supporting the party. Under the influence of such news, they switched over to other parties.     
How is it that your party had so many rebels in the fray?
There was some confusion over selection. The candidates whom I wanted to field were opposed by others. In coastal Karnataka, I would have won at least three or four seats.
I had plans to announce candidates almost six months before the elections. But many opposed it. Many potential leaders had joined our party long before the elections. However, the lack of understanding and distrust between old workers of our party and the new forced newcomers to leave the party.
In your party, it was you and your father (H.D. Deve Gowda) who decided on candidates. Does it mean there were differences between the both of you?
No. During the selection process, if I had differences with my father, I would tell him and on many occasions, he would agree. Similarly, I too ceded ground to my father. The issue was selecting the right candidate from several multiple aspirants. That’s where we went wrong.
Did you expect the Channapatna result where your wife lost?
No. I was shocked. It was a big setback for me personally. The candidate who finally won, had conceded a week before the polling that since Ms Anitha (the JD-S candidate) had cried before the public, he (C.P. Yogeshwar) had no chance of winning the election. But, when the results came, the opposite happened.
What went wrong?
I do not blame voters for this. Some of the middle-level leaders of our party sold themselves. We are investigating this. I will certainly take action against them. It was the pressure of local leaders that forced us to field one of our family members and still, we lost the seat. It’s difficult to digest that.
Do you suspect sabotage, maybe by someone from your family who did not like you and your wife making it big in politics.
I entered politics in 1996 when there was none to contest the parliament elections from Kanakapura. But in 1999, I, my father (H.D. Deve Gowda) and Revanna lost. Everyone had written off our family. But, we bounced back.
No, I don’t suspect sabotage from within. It is quite natural that members of a family will have difference on many issues. We have never allowed minor differences to divide us. When we have an issue to resolve, what we do is sit together and discuss and sort it out. So, we do not give any scope for a misunderstanding or crisis.
The poll results indicate your popularity is coming down. Comment
After I quit the CM post in 2007, I think people have not stopped loving me. In 2004, when we had stalwarts like Siddaramaiah, M.P. Prakash and others, we got 58 seats. After that, all of them left. Our rivals started branding us as Appa-Makkala Paksha (Father and son’s party). Still, we managed to win 40 seats this time. We had a resource problem. Still, we managed to get these seats.
If the survey reports had not created an anti-JD-S sentiment, we would have won 90. Actually, I was confident that no one would form the government without me. Now, we accept the result. Our fight will continue. I think the old Janata Parivar leaders who are upset with Congress and BJP will come back to us.
But, Yeddyurappa(KJP president) claimed that you got six seats because of the division of votes between BJP and KJP?
On the contrary, it was the other way round. In Aland, the BJP transferred its votes to the Congress. In Pandavapura, all the three parties supported the Raitha Sangha candidate to defeat us. In K.R. Pet, had KJP fielded a candidate, we would have won. 
Siddaramaiah, whom your family disliked, is set to become CM. How do you feel?
He has to thank us. Because of us, he is becoming CM. If JD (S) had not won Koratagere and defeated KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar, Siddara­mai­ah would not have stood a chance of becoming CM.
Many say, there was an understanding between a few Congress leaders and JD (S) to defeat Dr Parameshwar. Comment
It was always a JD(S) a pocketborough. No, there wasn’t any understanding.
Now that you have become opposition leader, do you feel you can devote time to legislative work?
It is a big challenge for me. For the next five years, we will work as a principal opposition party. When Dharam Singh was the chief minister I would sit in the last bench. My legislators would never allow me speak. My father in fact had asked me- Can you survive the opposition even for two minutes? He had even said the man who never spoke on the floor of the House, would crumble against the attack of scores of leaders in the opposition. But I managed very well.
I am ready to sit through the proceedings of the House. We are planning to introduce the British model here. Many of our leaders have handled  portfolios in the past. They will be asked to get inside information from the department and expose the government. But it looks funny. See the composition of the assembly this time. Siddaramaiah, Dr H.C. Mahadevappa, Ramesh Kumar in the treasury benches and we on the other side. It will be the old Janata Parivar versus new Janata Parivar (laughs)
Finally, your foe, Ashok Kheny (NICE chief) will also be inside the House. Comment
That is the beauty of Indian democracy. I will respect him as a representative of the people. But I will not allow him to speak in the manner he does outside the House.