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    ET analysis: Ex-CM Kumaraswamy’s attack on Congress, a move to assert JD(S) identity

    Synopsis

    Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar had until a year ago built up a public image of being great friends, and of burying their past rivalry. However, the former chief minister is now trying to cast aside that image and distance himself from the Congress, trying to widen the gulf between the JD(S) and Congress in the months following the collapse of the coalition regime a year ago.

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    BENGALURU: Ever since senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar took over the reins of the party’s Karnataka unit, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy has been unrelenting in his attacks on his former ally.

    Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar had until a year ago built up a public image of being great friends, and of burying their past rivalry.

    However, the former chief minister is now trying to cast aside that image and distance himself from the Congress, trying to widen the gulf between the JD(S) and Congress in the months following the collapse of the coalition regime a year ago.

    The provocation for his latest barrage has been Shivakumar’s agitation against the BJP for its alleged attempts to destabilize the Congress regime in Rajasthan.

    Kumaraswamy is trying to embarrass the Congress, reminding it of previous instances where the Grand Old Party had poached MLAs of rival parties.

    He has also put his former friend on the defensive -- by asking if it was alright to take over an entire state unit of a political party and merge it with itself – a clear reference to the six BSP MLAs who joined the Congress in Rajasthan after the state elections there.

    Kumaraswamy’s critique has come barely a month after JD(S) party supremo HD Deve Gowda won the Rajya Sabha election with Congress support. In fact, his attack on the Congress in the last couple of days has been so vitriolic that the BJP has not even bothered to do much to defend itself.

    So, what lies behind such fierce barbs?

    Since its founding in the late 1990s, the JD(S) has built its identity around Vokkaligas, the second largest community in Karnataka after Lingayats.

    It is well known that community members see Deve Gowda as their tallest leader, and quite a few leaders from the BJP and Congress are working hard to take over that mantle.

    Shivakumar, who has won the assembly polls non-stop since 1989, is one among them, and he will the front-runner for the Chief Minister’s post if he were to lead the Congress to victory in the next Assembly elections.

    Kumaraswamy, however, knows the Congress strongman will weaken the JD(S) along the way.

    The pockets of influence of both Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar overlap -- in Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Tumakuru, Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan and Chamarajanagar districts.

    Vokkaliga voters are dominant in these districts.

    In fact, when the Enforcement Directorate arrested Shivakumar last year, protests erupted in the Bengaluru-Mysuru belt.

    The JD(S) leader probably sees danger in sections of Vokkaliga voters backing Shivakumar in order that a community member can become chief minister.

    The father-son duo has always positioned the JD(S) as equal partners in any bargain for power with the BJP and Congress in the past.

    In fact, in several Assembly constituencies in the old Mysuru region, the electoral fight has, until recently, been mostly between the JD(S) and Congress.

    In Ramanagara district, Kumaraswamy and wife Anita, and Shivakumar and brother Suresh control their respective pockets.

    In the sprawling Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha seat, the brothers’ clout was so pervasive that it was the lone seat the Congress managed to win in Karnataka in last year’s Lok Sabha polls.


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