Whose photo will Siddara­maiah hang in his office in 2014?

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Scoring political points over portraits! Now one would imagine that an august assembly of men and women would expend their energies, discussing the many ways and means they can transform the lives of the people who have elected them to office. ‘Servants of the people.’ Wedded to the cause of upliftment of the poor. And all that jazz. But, no, no, no. 
 
The house is in an uproar! Not because there is concern that Karnataka’s mid-day meal scheme for the underprivileged could go — God forbid! — the way of Bihar; Or that our dedicated lawmakers were committed to contain the fall-out from the SC judgement on common entrance tests for medical seats; Or straining at the sinew over matters of some such import.
 
Instead, it’s the piffling matter of the chief minister, after he had his office re-decorated, deciding to dispense with the niceties and not place a photograph of former prime minister Deve Gowda back on the wall (alongside the mandatory pics of the prime minister, the president and Gandhiji) that had everybody’s whatsits in a twist.
 
But with Deve Gowda, being the only leader from Karnataka to ever grace Delhi’s Race Course Road, this was foot in the mouth times ten. (And one doesn’t understand the reasoning behind removing the much revered Atal Behari Vajpayee’s portrait, either).
 
One gets Siddara­maiah’s aversion to his former benefactors turned detractors, of course. Completely! Who doesn’t bite the hand that feeds!
 
Not too difficult to understand why he wants the Gandhis and the Nehrus up on his wall either, and not the head of a party that he was once a part of, and who, it must be said, relentlessly and joyously rain on his parade.
 
Siddaramaiah’s compulsions are simple. As the man with previous links to the Janata Parivar, which in itself provides enough and more ammunition to trigger-happy old Congressmen, nary a one rising to his defence, waiting for any and every opportunity to take pot shots at him, he must demonstrate that he is more loyal than the king. But it’s backfired. Badly.
 
The last thing the Congress, despite its overwhelming numbers yet a house deeply divided, needs is for the opposition to find common cause. Unlucky for them, the disappearing portrait did it, becoming the magnet, the glue that’s brought these unlikeliest of enemies together.
 
As proof, there was the jaw-dropping image that validated all the whispered backroom gup-shup — the Karnataka Janata Paksha chief B.S.Yeddyurappa with his hand lingering on his former pet hate, H.D. Kumaraswamy’s shoulder as his brother – and rival — H.D Revanna looked on indulgently.
 
The KJP has lost little time in letting it be known that they want an arrangement – pre-poll – with Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (S) that will deny the Congress the old Mysore-Mandya belt. They have put it about that BSY has had not one but three conversations with the JD(S) patriarch; Granted, not all as successful as BSY would have liked it to be.
 
On Friday, BSY threw in what he believed would be the clincher - withdrawing the defamation suit he had filed against HDK, the man he had once forged a strong bond with, and then as dramatically, snapped ties with.
 
Will it fly? Where will it lead? In terms of actual numbers, neither BSY on his own, nor the JD(S) flying solo can realistically push the Congress off its exalted perch.
 
But that hasn’t stopped Deve Gowda from playing Yeddyurappa for everything he can get. Or vice versa.
 
When it comes down to it though, Deve Gowda knows he cannot win more than the three parliamentary seats in the sugar-rich Gowda belt that he already has. As for BSY, he wasn’t able to win more than a handful of seats in the recent assembly elections either.
 
It’s mere puffery, therefore, than substance. But a sign, nevertheless, of things to come. Under the beady eyes of Narendrabhai and his many sub-committees, the BJP’s new saffronmeister is ensuring that his canny comrade in arms in Karnataka replicates his 2008’s 18 MP success story.
 
Prahlad Joshi can say what he will, but without BSY, the BJP will be unable to conjure up the magic numbers in Karnataka. Does he really want us to believe that the matter never came up for discussion, ever? That the Karnataka assembly election was for the BJP to lose, rather than the Congress to win?
 
Modi knows his own limitations in this former saffron state. Neither ‘puppies coming underfoot’ – the shocking Modi euphemism for killing Muslims — nor pulling the ‘burqa of secularism’ line that the “Hindu nationalist” Gujarat chief minister trotted out in a recent interview, is likely to consolidate the Hindu vote here.
 
At least, not in the manner in which the BJP can in the benighted north where the masses blindly buy into the story that Hinduism is at peril at the hands of the Muslim minority, and have more than a sneaking admiration for the cheap shots that Modi takes at the Congress government.
 
 
It isn’t in peril. Hinduism, that is. It’s an ancient religion that predates most tenets and practises, and will survive, as will all the other credos in a country where the freedom to worship and pursue different faiths is an inalienable right, undeniable, indisputable.
 
But Modi’s persuasive rhetoric holds young and old, disgusted by one corruption scam after another, in thrall. His calculated assault on the ‘secularity’ of a Congress that panders to the 
minorities is the second barb that hits home.
 
That the economy is failing even when a celebrated economist is at the helm doesn’t help the Congress’ cause either.
 
Couple all that with the fact that he plans to stand from Lucknow in UP, from a seat that gave former prime minister Vajpayee his dream run, to not only prove he can win outside Gujarat, but that he is Vajpayee’s natural successor, and you can see the undercurrent that could upend the Congress.
 
Its 35 spokespersons responding to any and every barb, building Modi up by the minute, by the second.
 
Fact is, Congress governments in Delhi and Haryana have lost their sheen. The non-Jats are fed up with the Chauthala-Hooda politicking in Haryana, even as the Akalis and the BJP consolidate their hold over Punjab.
 
In UP, BJP insiders are predicting that Modi with his man Amit Shah by his side will push the BJP seats up from 10 to 25.
 
In Bihar, where Nitish Kumar has lost momentum after the mid-day meal poisoning, the RJD versus the JD(U) versus Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Jan Shakti, could splinter the anti-BJP vote.
 
And there is Rajasthan, where a Scindia is snapping at the heels of the Congress’ Gehlot.
 
Rajnath Singh’s “India’s emphasis on English has held back people” wasn’t just any random remark. It was aimed at the Hindi-speaking belt, the lower middle class, across the northern states, which once backed the BJP.
 
Come October, Delhi will be an indicator of which way the wind will blow, but already this has become an election not for the BJP to win, but for the Congress to lose.