Will Congress' problem of plenty and infighting help BJP in Karnataka?

New Delhi: The Congress is facing a peculiar situation, a problem of plenty, as it prepares for the Karnataka  Assembly polls.

Even as political pundits are giving an upper hand to the Congress in the forthcoming Karnataka Assembly polls, the presence of three strong power centres, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, PCC chief DK Shivakumar and former Chief Minister and leader of the Opposition of Karnataka Legislative Assembly Siddharamaiah, is expected to prove detrimental to the cause of the Congress.

With these three strong leaders hailing from the state, it would be difficult for the grand old party to select winnable candidates. These top leaders are pushing for the fielding of their candidates for the forthcoming Assembly polls, at the same time they are expected to make it very difficult for Congress candidates chosen against these leaders' will to secure a win, sources said.

The three are expected to demand their pound of flesh, totally dominating the choice of candidates and party’s political strategy in the respective regions and communities they dominate.

While Kharge is seen as representing the substantial Dalit population in the state, Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga leader has a significant hold over voters from the Old Mysuru region. Similarly, Siddharamaiah, also popularly known as Siddu, belongs to the backward class Kuruba community and holds sway amongst the backward classes.

The three are not seemingly seeing eye to eye on key issues and may end up helping the BJP as Karnataka elections draw near. Differences between Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah have continued to surface time and again.

The major issue being faced by the Karnataka Congress is over ticket distribution. In November, Shivakumar reiterated that it is not Siddaramaiah, but the high command which will decide the tickets for forthcoming polls.

While in December, Shivakumar made a cryptic statement and said, “There are no differences. It’s a political strategy...”

While on the surface the grand old party claims that there are no differences among the top leaders in the state, even during the recent Bharat Jodo Yatra of Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, an intervention of the party high command was required to present a united front, sources pointed out.

The truth is that both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah are entangled in a battle for projection as the next chief minister.

The persistent factionalism is also believed to be the cause for Congress' inability to forge an alliance with its old partner JDS, sources said. 

The BJP feels this factionalism is likely to persist in the grand old party and unless the Congress high command intervenes the alliance is unlikely.

This has helped the Bharatiya Janata Party immensely, as it was hoping for a three-cornered contest in the forthcoming Legislative Assembly polls in Karnataka. 

The saffron unit hopes that Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) do not forge an alliance and ensure a split in anti-BJP votes has been granted by this alliance not taking off. The BJP believes this will help ensure its return to power in Karnataka as the anti-incumbency votes will split between two strong opposition forces.

The BJP, which is desperate to save its southern citadel, is trying hard to reclaim the state. The saffron front has even reached out to former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa to help ensure its comeback and avoid any rebellion or bad blood between its top leaders.

Karnataka was the first state to have elected a BJP government in South India and is considered to be immensely important for the BJP which plans to expand its base in southern India. And the saffron unit feels that coming back to power in the forthcoming state Assembly polls is the basic requirement to enthuse saffron cadre’s morale ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year.

Karnataka elects 28 MPs to the lower house of the Parliament. Of these, the BJP had secured 25 seats with one seat secured by an NDA ally in the 2019 general elections and the saffron unit hopes to retain Karnataka's strength of seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.  With Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to seek a third term, the importance of Karnataka in the BJP's political scheme of things has increased immensely.