Vajpayee moment in Karnataka

KV Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 19

History has an uncanny way of repeating itself. Twenty-two years to the day, albeit 10 days short, for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Atal Bihari Vajpayee moment revisited the organisation. It was on May 29, 1996, that then Prime Minister Vajpayee preferred to announce his resignation on the floor of the Lok Sabha instead of facing a trust vote his government was certain to lose. 

On May 19, 2018, BS Yeddyurappa chose to throw in the towel, realising herculean efforts to woo support from across the aisles remained a tall order and was simply not happening. The irony does not end there. In the summer of 1996, Vajpayee bowed out of office unable to break the combined Opposition which rallied behind Karnataka’s son of the soil HD Deve Gowda.

This time around, the ‘humble farmer, as Gowda describes himself, quietly tilled the political ground and circumstances did the rest as the Congress backed the Janata Dal (Secular). It was Gowda’s son HD Kumaraswamy the Opposition threw its weight behind.

Yet, the factors that dictated political alignments in the country in 1996 are far different three decades later. Today, the BJP is not “untouchable’’, a label that Vajpayee and Advani worked hard to banish. What complicated the ground for the BJP, under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah, was that it was entangled in its own narrative and enmeshed in the skilful manoeuvres in states like Manipur, Goa and Bihar.

Since proclaiming ‘mandate is with us’’ version in Karnataka and stubbornly persisting with Yeddyurappa as the CM, the BJP attracted scorn and even frowns from discerning followers. A flurry of jokes on the social media reached the apex court too.

Both PM Modi and Shah, known for dexterous calculations on the political matrix, must have decided it was better to lose the battle and set sights on winning the 2019 General Election. In the run-up, inherent contradictions in the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress arrangement were bound to aggravate.

Though the JD (S) get to lead the coalition, reports suggest all is not well within the Gowda family and his other son HD Revanna. The Congress, whose former Chief Minister Siddharamaiah does not enjoy the best of relations with the senior Gowda, will be the counter-pull.

Just as Vajpayee left on a note of caution in 1996 that even though the BJP was the single-largest it was being made to sit in the Opposition,  Yeddyurappa walked out of the Karnataka Assembly after an emotional speech, hoping the tide would turn sooner than later.