It is party-hopping season in Karnataka. Political leaders who felt alienated, frustrated by internal rifts and factionalism in their parties, or just out of plain opportunism, have started jumping ship.
With Karnataka assembly elections due in the next few months, ticket aspirants are knocking on the doors of political parties to enter the electoral fray.
Jumping Ship ‘Freely’
The latest in the list is H Nagesh, an independent MLA from Mulbagal, who is all set to join the Congress. After meeting Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar and also posing for a photograph, the MLA said he is likely to be inducted into the party by the end of this week. He supported the BJP in 2019 after withdrawing support from the Congress-JD(S) alliance.
The episode was nothing less than a potboiler drama.
After withdrawing support in 2019 and being among the first ten MLAs to topple the HD Kumaraswamy government, Nagesh claimed that he was “held hostage by the Congress” during the crisis and forcefully picked up by a senior Congress leader and Governor was taken to to show the numbers.
Nagesh tendered his resignation as MLAs along with ten rebel MLAs and stayed in a five-star hotel in Mumbai as guests of the BJP to avoid being wooed by the Congress.
The political drama continued as DK Shivakumar claimed that Nagesh had made a desperate call to him saying that he was “being hijacked by Mr Yediyurappa’s PA and the BJP”.
“By the time I reached the airport to try and bring him back, the flight carrying Nagesh had left,” Sivakumar told this reporter during the climax of the poaching drama.
The leader later said in an interview in Mumbai in 2019, “I have decided to support the BJP.” He later supported the BJP government led by BS Yeddyurappa and became a minister.
The Mulbagal MLA was an active member of the Congress until he was denied a ticket by the party, which chose G Manjunath as its candidate for the constituency. Nagesh had won the seat as an independent candidate. This time he has once again asked Congress to give him ticket from Mulbagal constituency, which was denied in the last election.
Hurt by YSV Dutta joining Congress?
Another high-profile leader to switch to the Congress is former JD(S) MLA YSV Dutta who announced that he would formally join the national party on January 15. He JD(S) ticket from Kadur seat in 2013. Subsequently, he lost the election in 2018. He felt sidelined and ignored for a while, paving the way for the move.
The leader told News18, “The people of Kadur are looking for a change and have supported my move to the Congress.”
Dutta was associated with the JD(S) for more than four decades and was grateful to the party for launching his political career, he told this reporter.
Dutta said, “I have my reasons for this step, but I also respect Deve Gowda ji so much that I am ashamed to tell him this directly.”
Two other JD(S) leaders, DM Vishwanath of Kanakapura and Radhakrishna of Mandya, quit the JD(S) this month to join the Congress.
Mandya MP Sumalata will also join the BJP train?
When flags and massive flex dotted the Mandya skyline ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the area last week, the one picture that caught everyone’s attention was that of independent MP from Mandya, Sumalatha Ambareesh.
While speculation is rife that the MP may soon join the party, the local BJP leadership is still in denial mode.
Sources close to Sumalatha claimed that the posters carrying her picture were put up by S Satchidanand, a former Congress leader who recently joined the BJP. He had actively supported Sumalatha during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, due to which she defeated HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil in the JD(S) bastion. The Congress expelled him for supporting him.
It is said that Satchidanand now wants 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. The induction of the leaders is seen as the BJP’s bid to strengthen its footprint in the old Mysore region, traditionally a bastion of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular).
The JD(S) continues to include former Congress MP SP Muddahanumegowda in its list of senior leaders, who was elected as MLA from Tumkur Lok Sabha seat in 2014. He was forced to walk out after Congress and JD(S). ) had political savvy and fielded former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda as the consensus candidate in 2019. Due to this Muddahanumegouda left the party. Along with him, retired IAS officer BH Anil Kumar and actor-turned-politician Sasikumar had joined the Karnataka BJP last November.
The BJP launched its campaign last year to woo disgruntled and capable leaders from other parties. Prominent catchers for the party were former Congress ministers Pramod Madhavraj and Varthur Prakash (INDP), Sandesh Nagaraj and former Indian Revenue Service officer Dr Lakshmi Ashwinegowda of the JD(S).
Revenue Minister R Ashok said there are many more people who want to join the BJP, but a final decision is yet to be taken.
JD(S) with open arms
For JD(S) the plan is simple. It is ready to welcome any leader who is disgruntled with their parties and will ensure that they win as many seats as possible.
Former Union minister CM Ibrahim, who was once with the Janata Dal (Secular) and later joined the Congress, again switched to the JD(S), taking over as the president of the party’s Karnataka unit.
Ibrahim had earlier held the portfolios of Aviation, Information Broadcasting and Tourism under the Deve Gowda government in 1996. He later joined the Congress in 2008, but has been resentful for a few years now as he felt the party had not given him his due. , Upset with the Congress and Siddaramaiah, he sent his resignation from the primary membership of the party to Congress President Sonia Gandhi in March 2022. He also voluntarily resigned as MLC.
“For the past 12 years, in my many letters addressed to you, I have placed before you many grievances of the party and you had indeed replied that you will take necessary remedial measures. But so far, I don’t see any change,” Ibrahim wrote in his letter.
Ibrahim’s leaving the Congress was seen primarily as a result of the party appointing BK Hariprasad as Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, a post he had been fighting for.
The JD(S) is eagerly waiting to contact the disgruntled leaders, especially at a time when they are getting to know who will be given tickets and who will not. JD(S) leaders feel that if they can bring together a good number of disgruntled senior leaders, especially from the Congress, they may have a better chance of becoming kingmakers again—i.e., the 2023 elections giving another fractured mandate Can
Interestingly, JD(S) state president CM Ibrahim extended an open invitation to former minister and BJP leader Ramesh Jarkiholi, who is waiting to join the Basavaraj Bommai cabinet after switching to the BJP from the Congress in 2019. Party insiders tell that talks are also going on with other Congress leaders including former minister TB Jayachandra and former Gangavati MLA Iqbal Ansari.
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