After nearly four years of stupor and indecision, the Congress seems to be coming into its own. With some prudent advice from former President Pranab Mukherjee to the Congress leadership and Rahul Gandhi’s newfound political aggression, the party has been able to outwit the BJP in the battle of Karnataka. The party leaders feel that the worst is over for the Congress and achchhe din are ahead for the grand old party.
The Congress wasted no time in putting in place a clever strategy soon after it became clear that it would not get majority in the Assembly. Even as the election results were being declared on May 15, former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi rushed to “deliberate” with Pranab Mukherjee on the emerging situation.
Sources said that both Sonia and Rahul have been frequenting the veteran Congressman and taking advice from him.
A senior Congress leader said the BJP might have christened their party chief Amit Shah as “Chanakya” but the real Chanakya of Independent India is Pranab Mukherjee. Sources said Priyanka Gandhi too accompanied Sonia and Rahul in strategising the party position in Karnataka.
That the Congress was ready with plan “B” if it fell short of numbers was evident on the counting day when it wasted no time in conceding CM chair to the JD(S). Soon after party MlAs were asked to assemble in Bengaluru and whisked away to a resort in HD Kumaraswamy’s constituency. This kept BJP’s alleged poachers at bay.
The Congress immediately sought appointment with the Governor and submitted the letter of support for the Government formation. At the same time in Delhi, senior lawyers and members in the Rajya Sabha Abhishek Singhvi, Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram and Vivek Tankha were preparing the draft documents to move the Supreme Court.
At the same time, to keep the flock together, the MlAs were taken out of Karnataka on Thursday night to Hyderabad.
While Sibal and Singhvi argued for the JD(S) and the Congress, Chidambaram turned up at last minute and pleaded that the Governor should not be allowed to appoint a nominated MlA from Anglo-Indian community before the trust vote.
While party legal eagles were burning midnight oil in Delhi, senior Congress
leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok Gehlot were camping in Bengaluru.
The two leaders negotiated deal with the JD(S) to keep the BJP out of power. By the time Yeddyurappa addressed the media at the party office, the Congress had announced that they were offering unconditional support to the JD(S). Kumaraswamy rushed to his father’s house and confabulated with him and other members of his family on the course forward.
“Azad and Gehlot were asked to ensure no MlAs crossed over and the leadership also approached TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, BSP chief Mayawati and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury for their inputs. Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad were in touch with the TDP and the TRS leaders too,” said sources.
Former Minister and powerful Vokkaliga leader DK Shivakumar, who is well known as Dikeshi, stood out as a wall between the Congress MlAs and “poachers”. Dikeshi was clearly the man of the moment for the Congress and the JD(S) combine.
In the entire political drama, the 56-year-old DK Shivakumar along with his brother and MP DK Suresh deftly managed and kept the Congress and JD(S) MlAs together till the resignation of Yeddyurappa. One of the richest politicians in the country, Shivakumar has been a political opponent of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and family but in the circumstances he brought the JD(S) together with the Congress to fight the BJP and Yeddyurappa and also to defeat Siddaramaiah who is seen as an outsider in the Congress.
He hit the headlines a few months back for “safeguarding” the Congress MlAs of Gujarat who were herded to Bengaluru before the Rajya Sabha elections of their leader Ahmed Patel. This strongman of Kanankapura is always proved his loyalty to the Congress.
Shivakumar, who entered politics at the young age in 1980s, is a five-time MlA. He has officially declared assets worth Rs 618 crore and seen as the future Chief Minister of the State. He always been the trouble-shooter for the party and proved this time too. He hit the news when he was last year raided by the I-T Department for three days.
“Pranab da was always in favour of youth taking the centre-stage but not at the cost of seniors. The Congress V-P has also got a cue from the former President as how to shape up his team with greater responsibilities to the elderly. You would recall that Ghulam Nabi Azad used to interact with media very rarely but in recent months he has been doing almost every day and a regular in addressing media at crucial junctures,” said a Congress leader.
The party workers at AICC headquarters on Saturday also hailed the acumen of Ahmed Patel, Political Secretary to Sonia, who had first broken the myth of invincibility of Amit Shah in the RS elections in Gujarat.
Sources said that Rahul has been trying to bring both experience and youth together in the party. That is the reason why a clutch of young leaders worked on the ground in Karnataka and seniors like Patel, Gehlot, Chidambaram and Sibal held fort in Delhi. When asked about involvement of Manmohan Singh, sources said he is being often informed and consulted about party decisions.
Congress sources said the party will now make serious efforts to form Governments in States like Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur where they are sitting in Opposition despite being the single-largest party in the Assembly and will approach the Supreme Court.