It is the season of party-hopping in Karnataka. Political leaders who have been feeling sidelined, frustrated with internal rifts and factionalism in their parties, or out of just plain opportunism, have begun jumping ship.
Aspirants for tickets have been knocking on the doors of political parties to enter the election fray as Karnataka heads toward assembly polls in the next few months.
‘INDEPENDENTLY’ JUMPING SHIP
The latest on the list is the independent MLA from Mulbagal, H Nagesh, who is all set to join the Congress. Having met Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar and posed for a photograph as well, the legislator said he is likely to be inducted into the party by this weekend. He supported the BJP in 2019 after withdrawing support from the Congress-JD(S) coalition.
That episode was no less than a potboiler drama.
Having been among the first ten legislators to withdraw support and bring down the HD Kumaraswamy government in 2019, Nagesh claimed that he was “held hostage by the Congress” during the crisis and was forcibly picked up by a senior Congress leader and taken to the governor to show numbers.
Nagesh along with ten rebel MLAs tendered their resignation as MLAs and remained holed up in a Mumbai five-star hotel as guests of the BJP to keep them from being lured back by the Congress.
The political drama continued as DK Shivakumar claimed that Nagesh had made a desperate call to him saying he was being “hijacked by Mr Yediyurappa’s PA and the BJP”.
“By the time I reached the airport to try and get him back, the flight carrying Nagesh had left,” Shivakumar told this reporter during the peak of this poaching drama.
“I have decided to support the BJP,” the leader later said in an interview in Mumbai in 2019. He later supported the BS Yediyurappa-led BJP government and became a minister.
The Mulbagal MLA was an active member of the Congress until the time he was denied a ticket by the party which had elected G Manjunath as the candidate for the constituency. Nagesh won the seat as an independent candidate. This time around he has once again asked the Congress to give him a ticket for the Mulbagal constituency, the same one that was denied in the previous election.
A HURT YSV DATTA TO JOIN CONGRESS?
Another high-profile leader to move to the Congress is former JD(S) legislator YSV Datta who announced that he would formally join the national party on January 15. He was elected to the Karnataka assembly from the Kadur seat in 2013 on the JD(S) ticket. Subsequently, he lost the election in 2018. He expressed feeling sidelined and ignored for some time now, paving the way for this move.
“The people of Kadur have been looking for a change and they have favoured my move to the Congress,” the leader told News18.
Datta had been associated with the JD(S) for more than four decades and owed it to the party to launch his political career, he told this reporter.
“I have my reasons for my move, but I also respect Deve Gowda ji so much that I am embarrassed to directly convey this to him,” Datta added.
Two other JD(S) leaders, DM Vishwanath of Kanakapura and Radhakrishna of Mandya, quit the JD(S) to join the Congress this month.
MANDYA MP SUMALATHA ALSO TO JOIN BJP BANDWAGON?
When flags and massive flexes dotted the Mandya skyline ahead of union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to the region last week, the one picture that caught the attention of all was that of independent MP from Mandya, Sumalatha Ambareesh.
While speculation is rife that the MP may join the party soon, the local BJP leadership is still in denial mode.
Sources close to Sumalatha claimed that the posters with her photo were put up by a former Congress leader who recently joined the BJP, S Sachidananda. He had actively backed Sumalatha during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, leading to her defeating HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil in the JD(S) heartland. The Congress expelled him for backing her.
It is said that Sachidananda is now aspiring for a BJP ticket from Srirangapatna.
Ahead of the assembly elections, several Congress leaders, including SL Lingaraju, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in November 2022. Roping in the leaders is seen as the BJP’s bid to strengthen its footprint in the Old Mysore region, which traditionally has been a stronghold of the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular).
The JD(S) continues to add to its list of senior leaders by roping in former Congress MP SP Muddahanumegowda who was elected as a lawmaker from the Tumkur Lok Sabha seat in 2014. He was forced to move out after the Congress and JD(S) had a political understanding and fielded former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda as a consensus candidate in 2019. This upset Muddahanumegowda who quit the party. Along with him, retired IAS officer BH Anil Kumar and actor-turned-politician Shashikumar joined the Karnataka BJP last November.
The BJP began its operation to lure disgruntled and able leaders from other parties last year. The prominent catch for the party were former ministers Pramod Madhwaraj of Congress and Varthur Prakash (INDP), Sandesh Nagaraj, and former Indian Revenue Service officer Dr Lakshmi Ashwingowda of the JD(S).
There are many more who want to join the BJP, but the final call is yet to be taken, said revenue minister R Ashoka.
JD(S) WITH ARMS OPEN
For the JD(S), the plan is simple. It is ready to welcome any leaders who are disgruntled with their parties and will ensure they win maximum seats.
Former union minister CM Ibrahim who had once been with the Janata Dal (Secular) and later joined the Congress, again moved to the JD(S), while taking up responsibility as president of the party’s Karnataka unit.
Ibrahim had previously held the portfolios of aviation, information broadcasting, and tourism under the Deve Gowda government in 1996. He later joined the Congress in 2008 but had been sulking for a few years now as he felt that the party had not given him his due. Upset with the Congress and Siddaramaiah, he sent in his resignation from the primary membership of the party to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in March 2022. He also voluntarily resigned as MLC.
“From the past 12 years, in my several letters addressed to you, I had placed before you several grievances of the party and you had indeed replied that you will take necessary remedial measures. But so far, I do not see any change,” Ibrahim wrote in his letter.
Ibrahim quitting the Congress was primarily seen as a result of the party appointing BK Hariprasad as the leader of opposition in the legislative council, a post he had been vying for.
The JD(S) has been eagerly awaiting dissident leaders to contact them, especially at this time when they learn who would be given tickets and who will be denied. The JD(S) leaders feel that if they can rope in a good number of disgruntled senior leaders, especially from the Congress, their chances of being a kingmaker again may be high— that is the 2023 polls may throw up another fractured mandate.
Interestingly, JD(S) state president CM Ibrahim extended an open invitation to former minister and BJP leader Ramesh Jarkiholi who is waiting in the wings to be inducted into the Basavaraj Bommai cabinet after his shift from the Congress to the BJP in 2019. Party insiders say that talks are also on with Congress leaders like former minister TB Jayachandra and former Gangavathi MLA Iqbal Ansari among others.
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