2018 Karnataka Assembly poll has acquired significance beyond just who governs the State
Even in times past, it would not be unexpected if we were a few months away from the next General Election as we are today that the electoral battle for Karnataka Assembly's 223 constituencies would see the two main national parties, the BJP and Congress, roll out their national leaders to help build what political parties like to call ‘momentum' in the run-up to the lok Sabha poll. But the 2018 Karnataka poll has acquired significance quite out of proportion, frankly, to the prize — who gets to govern a middle-sized South Indian State from Bangalore's Vidhan Soudha. The reason for this is two-fold.
First, India has never before seen a Prime Minister like Narendra Modi when it comes to the sheer relentlessness of his campaigns for State elections, big or small. Backed by a BJP party machinery that has been corporatized under Amit Shah and which has no hesitation in deploying its star campaigner in what can only be termed a scorched earth campaign for what would have in an earlier political era been considered small gains, the combination means that any election is seen as a do-or-die battle. Throw in: (a) The Opposition showing signs of getting its act together both in terms of alliances and messaging over the past few months after being pulverised both in terms of narrative and electorally by the Modi-led BJP since May 2014 and; (b) The next General Election looming. Result: The intensity is on steroids. Secondly, the last vestiges of the Ancien Regime birthed by what political scientist Rajini Kothari characterized as the Congress System post-Independence have come crawling out of the woodwork in the knowledge that unless the Modi juggernaut is stopped, or at least stalled, in Karnataka, their assiduously set-up network which perpetuates inter-generational privilege is likely to become history come the lok Sabha poll. But that's the agenda for the solely rent-seeking sections of the simpatico. It must also be acknowledged that there is significant ideological opposition to and aesthetic disdain for the Modi-led BJP which is represented politically by the Congress and they are working on coalescing social groups for their messaging has traction for the Karnataka election which, never forget, is also Rahul Gandhi's first major electoral test after taking over as Congress president and a decent showing in the Gujarat State poll. So, for the Congress as an organisation and as a test of Gandhi's leadership skills in the electoral arena, retaining the State is vital.
Where does this proxy battle leave the electorate of Karnataka, though, which is voting in MlAs in the hope that policies will be formulated, laws passed and local governance gets goingIJ It's all very well for analysts to point out that the Congress has farmed out its campaign to its regional satrap and Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah who will deliver on the above or that the BJP too despite its current centralising impulse has made space for its State stalwart and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyyurappa who is focussed on local issues. The fact is that whichever way the people of Karnataka decide to vote today, they are likely to keep in mind they are voting for a State Assembly and not for the lok Sabha though there is no denying the impact their choice on the composition of the former will have an impact on the elections to the latter.