Editorial, "THE KARNATAKA ELECTIONS FIASCO", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 May 2018, Vol. 14, Part 1, No. 9 issue

THE KARNATAKA ELECTIONS FIASCO

So many hopes cherished and illusions spread by various parliamentary parties on the recent Karnataka Elections, the results of which have busted all those dreams and declarations. Especially the parliamentary left and other self-proclaimed secular, democratic parties were propagating a lot about the crucial importance of these elections to stall the march of the Hindu communal fanatic BJP into the South, etc. and the latter were eyeing for a sure victory in Karnataka to make their inroads into the South easier. Both were foiled by the people’s mandate which was not given solidly in favor of any party. Perhaps had a pre-poll alliance been there between any two of the three contending parties that matter – Congress, BJP and JDS – the results could have been different and ensued in a definite positive mandate to this or that alliance, but all their professed ideals and declarations were not enough to enable them to come to a joint platform even. Ultimately BJP did not fare bad as it emerged as the single largest party though in the process it had fielded some of the allegedly most corrupt businessmen-politicians like Gali Janardan Reddy & Co. and the Congress did not fare that well, winning 78 seats or so only, though it is reported to have gained more votes than the BJP. Deve Gowda’s JDS mustered some 38 seats, and there are now indications of post-poll alliances or the largest single party being called to form the government, etc. All this will enable a lot of strings-pulling by the governmental and non-governmental political power circles and promote horse-trading of MLAs, which has become a common feature in this corrupt society. These elections also showed that all the talk of secularism and anti-Hindu communalism etc. on the part of the Congress and JDS and other parties is but a show and eyewash, as all these high objectives could not make them forge a pre-poll alliance which would certainly have been fatal to the BJP prospects. Also it shows how some Telugu parties in Andhra Pradesh posing as anti-BJP in the context of the state political exigencies were yearning for a BJP victory in Karnataka and overtly or covertly aiding their election propaganda and how the “Don’t vote BJP” propaganda by the ruling party of AP and other agitating fronts for special status to AP have also miserably failed. Well, whichever camp among the two comes to power in Karnataka by hook or crook, nothing so good is going to happen to the people nor are heavens going to fall down. In contrast, what is direly needed is transcending the current corrupt parliamentary politics to establish real people’s power politics. §§§