Bypoll results encouraging but . . . | J P Gadkari

July 18, 2024

The INDIA blocs’ victory in 10 out of 13 Assembly seats in seven States for which elections were held last week shows which way the wind is blowing.

The BJP was able to win only two seats with one going to an independent. These bypolls were held to fill up four vacant seats in West Bengal, three in Himachal Pradesh, two in Uttarakhand and one each in Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Bihar

These elections were the first major test between the NDA and INDIA bloc after the recently held Lok Sabha elections. It showed that people in these States and in general have lost faith in the policies that are being followed by NDA and particularly BJP which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

But weakness in INDIA bloc was also displayed as far as 11 MLC seats for which elections were held last week in Maharashtra. The MAHAYUTI, led by BJP alongwith its partners, the breakaway Shiv Sena (Shinde group) and Ajit Pawar led NCP won nine out of the 11 seats because of the cross voting by seven Congres MLAs. This is a bad omen
considering the Assembly elections that are due to take place in another three months in the State.

Secondly, there is a dark shadow on the one year old Siddaramaiah Govt because of couple of scams being unearthed with one of its Ministers Nagendra had to resign and now he is under the custody of the E D for alleged Rs 89 crores scam in Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Dvelopment Corporation; more than alleged Rs120 crore scam in Anna Bhagya scheme and allegations against Siddaramaiah himself of being favoured illegally of allotment of prime land in his wife’s name by Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

The Congress Govt in Karnataka is already facing serious financial crisis due to refusal by the Centre to release the devolution funds, the drought relief funds and its refusal to sell rice for its Anna Bhagya scheme from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns at concessional rates. On the top of all this, the State Govt had to recently approve the salary hike to its 12 lakh employees by implementing the Seventh Pay Commission report. It is going to cost the State Govt additional
Rs 8000/- crores annually.

The Karnataka Congress Govt is firmly committed to continue with its five guarantees given during last year’s Assembly elections. But its financial problems is making it very tough for doing it. In order to overcome these financial deficits, the State Govt had to take some hard measures like increasing the Motor vehicle tax, increasing milk prices etc. It is now thinking of increasing travel costs of its KSRTC and BMRTC where it implemented free travel scheme for women as part of five guarantees last year.

But apart from all this, internal factional fights are also surfacing very often in the Congress party in the State lately, mainly between the Siddaramaiah and Dy C M D K Shiva Kumar’s group. On the other hand a large number of party MLAs are also lobbying for getting ministerial berths on caste basis. With this it has become very difficult to keep the party united and strong. The party High Command have to intervene quite often by warning even some of the senior leaders of the party not to indulge in "anti-party" activities.

Favourable results in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, J & K and Jharkhand and strict disciplinary actions by the party Congress High Command can only check the rot.

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The Karnataka State Congress leadership meanwhile has come out with a strong rebuttal of various corruption charges being made by the Opposition BJP against it and accusing the party of using probe agencies like E D, CBI and Income Tax to topple the Congress Govt in the State.

Half a dozen senior Congress Ministers holding a press conference in Bangalore on Thursday,[July 19, 2024] accused the E D of "pressuring and threatening" those under investigation in the Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation alleged scam to name Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Dy C M D K Shivakumar as accused in the case. The Congress leaders further accused ED officials of "granting immunity to those who cooperated with them."