What’s Congress really afraid of? A Siddu in the house or a Modi in Delhi

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If the Congress has any intentions of making a play for the assembly elections next year and crucial parliamentary polls in the next, the infighting that has bedevilled its ranks for all the years it's been out of power, must stop. And the right questions asked. Or else, they may as well kiss Karnataka goodbye; slip-slide out of the reckoning and into the sidelines, and prepare for oblivion. Surely, they need no reminding that to be out of power for three consecutive terms is political death.

Talk about being it's own worst enemy! Must practice knife-throwing when backs are turned, in their spare time! Questions. Why pick the kind of candidates that they have for the legislative council seats when not one among the four – barring the redoubtable Motamma – is a politician of repute? Whom, among the pick of three has the ability, the searing speaking skills required to rally an electorate to its side? Or for that matter, have the moxy to stand up in the house and embarrass a ruling party fast drowning in a sea of scandals? Why were these men picked? Was it caste? Was it cash, as widely speculated? Or ‘cause they knew whom to be nice to? Or was it because they were so inconsequential, they posed no threat to anyone? Status quoists, peaceable squatters, and more important, biddable! They're certainly not winners, when they could have been.

Second. Who calls the shots in the Congress? And why has the Congress high command, despite every indicator, and clearly favouring one faction over another, allowed the uneasy relationship between the head of the state party unit and the chief of your contingent of legislators in the house, to fester, come to this sorry pass?

Anyone else in charge of the Congress in Karnataka, a state, so ripe for picking given the BJP's incredibly muddle-headed functioning, would show both Mr G. Parmeswar and Mr Siddaramaiah, the error of their ways. Bang their heads together, until they see reason?

Except as they say “the heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of...” Not when you are governed by ambition and pride, by the unwritten credo that you must protect your turf at all cost, and to hell with everybody else.

Clearly, the well-meaning Mr Parameswar as head of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee was imposed from above, not a popular choice; If he ever was that!

On sufferance until now, he has been woefully unable to stitch together the disparate elements that currently make for a divided Congress. And given the backing he has from external affairs minister and Karnataka stalwart S.M. Krishna, there's little, that any of the myriad factions, in a party notorious for having more generals than foot-soldiers, could have done about it.

But then, Siddaramaiah, is not exactly what you would describe as a pushover. He’s done marking time. In publicly lashing out at the party bigwigs, claiming that no-one listens to his recommendations and in submitting his resignation as leader of the opposition, he has signaled that enough is enough. And that if the party is unwilling to accept him as one of their own and continues to make that wonderfully unsubtle distinction between the real Congressmen and newcomers, paints him as an outsider even after six years in the Congress, then he will find his fortune elsewhere.

Was he right to lose it? It's as clear as day that it was a bargaining tool. Or else he would have submitted his resignation as leader of the house directly and in person to the speaker.

But put that aside for a moment and look at what it is that makes the likes of the KPCC chief ignore the recommendations of someone as key as your legislative party leader, who wanted his friend, the no doubt dubious, bumptious and loud C.M. Ibrahim inducted in the upper house for the sheer noise value he generates, alongside the token Congress Lingayat candidate in Rani Sathish.

It’s an open secret that the politics of the party in the state is built to stop one faction from gaining an upper hand over the other. No state, indeed, no party is immune. The fear? Siddaramaiah as chief ministerial candidate will put paid to let's say Malikarjun Kharge's ambition – or even Krishna’s – to have chief minister as their signature swansong.

Except, the MLC fiasco has for the first time seen senior leaders coalesce behind Siddaramaiah. As one senior leader said to me “The matter was not even discussed with Siddaramaiah, not in person, not on the phone.” And they expect to win the elections!

Fact is, there may be no overt rebellion or cross-voting on the day. (And maybe no candidate who withstands scrutiny!!) But the uneasy co-existence is telling on the party. At this critical juncture when they must capitalize on the enemy's weakness, it has – much like the BJP – turned on itself, allowed infighting to come in the way of presenting an united front.

Siddaramaiah’s posturing may have everything to do with the arrival in Karnataka of Gandhi scion Rahul. There's no other way to catch the powerful's eye than to flounce your pretty skirts or engage in some other attention getting device, now, is there?

Siddu, certainly must have Rahul’s undivided attention! Fact is – with all due apologies to other stalwarts in the party – just as Mr Krishna stands head and shoulders above all the other Congressmen, as does B.S. Yeddyurappa in the BJP, and Deve Gowda in the Janata Dal (S), a 60 year old Siddaramaiah, with the ability to influence Kuruba voters in virtually every constituency, the third largest community in the state after the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas, and raring to go, is clearly the next vote-catcher for the Congress. For all his posturing, he is the only mass leader they have. Why, allow him to self-destruct? Why shunt him to the side? And why not unofficially name him – or for that matter, anyone else they deem capable – as the one to lead the party in the next campaign?

Unlike the financial improprieties that visit most men in power, Siddaramaiah hasn't had the opportunity or the inclination to blot his own copy-book. The party has their youth leaders in place, but has done nothing about a politico who could possibly win them control of the assembly, and come 2014, deliver a sizeable chunk of Karnataka’s 28 seats to the central kitty.

It’s no secret that the BJP at the centre is positioning Narendra Modi for a national role after he sweeps Gujarat up and aims for big ticket states like poll-bound Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to fall into their lap, even as the Congress seems to be floundering. Modi’s harping on the economic paralysis under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a message that he can do better.

Whether the BJP can get other members of the NDA to look beyond Modi's dodgy record is another matter. So what exactly is the Congress waiting for? And what is it more afraid of? A Siddaramaiah too big for his boots, who'll stomp over everyone, here in Karnataka? Or Modi in Race Course Road?