The otherwise unruffled setting of the guest house - a favourite halt-spot of the Congress leaders - had sprung to life after the BJP’s formal pullout from the coalition government.

Half measures and caution, perhaps, defined the opposition party’s gameplan through the 20 months of the Kumaraswamy government. Even as the JD(S) and the BJP were training guns at each other over the aborted transfer of power, the Congress was on the fence, waiting for things to happen. Though the entry of the party’s State in-charge Prithviraj Chauhan in the scene and the talks he had with the Governor on Monday revitalised the Congress camp, the efforts proved late in the day.

Until KPCC President Mallikarjuna Kharge and former Chief Minister N Dharam Singh spelt out the party’s demand for the dismissal of the “minority” government, the party had only contributed to the rumour mills.

Cautious stance
Sources in the party, however, reason that being a national party with an all-powerful High Command in Delhi, the Congress has to adopt a cautious, studied stance back home. The party has joined the issue whenever the strange bedfellows in power showed signs of internal strife.

Suspended BJP MLC G Janardhana Reddy’s bid to “expose” illegal mining backed by the Gowda family was a high point for the opposition. The subsequent dampening of the scandal reflected the go-easy fashion in which Congress tapped it. Even when the U L Bhat Commission entrusted with the probe was wound up, the opposition was more or less low-key.

Though it topped the wards tally in the urban local body elections, the Congress is unconvincing in its claims that it’s the best show possible from an opposition party. The party persisted with the wait-and-watch stance during the Renukacharya scandal, land scams involving ministers and kin and during the government’s face-offs with Ashok Kheny over the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project.

Roping in Siddaramaiah from the JD(S)’ stable was tipped to bolster the opposition. However, what has surfaced over the past year is indecision among the Congress ranks with regard to Siddaramaiah’s role in his new, adopted home. The absence of a leadership that could effectively tap the coalition turmoil left the Congress defensive.

The last time the party was in serious circulation in the power corridors was, ironically, when they were hobnobbing with H D Deve Gowda.