CM survived, but JD(S) has dented his image

But the father-son duo of H D Deve Gowda and H D Kumaras- wamy of the party have certainly succeeded in denting the image of the first BJP Government in the State and Yeddyurappa.

After biting the dust in his attempt to topple the Government by orchestrating rebellion in the ruling party recently, Kumaraswamy took on himself the task of exposing the alleged misdeeds of the Yeddyurappa Government.

He levelled serious allegations of abuse of power by the Chief Minister to help his family members and ministerial colleagues own valuable properties in the State capital.

Documents released by Kumaraswamy in last the fortnight pertaining to alleged illegal site allotments and land denotifications by the Chief Minister took the ruling party, especially Yeddyurappa’s family, by surprise. It may be the allotment orders signed by the Chief Minister himself or the registered sale deeds or the bank statements of dubious financial transactions, the JD(S) leader made public almost all documents to back his allegations.

Deep crisis

The charges not only pushed the Government into a deep crisis, but caused considerable damage to the ruling party ahead of the crucial zilla and taluk panchayat elections. The elections are scheduled to be held in December. Kumaraswamy now wants, at least, to cash in on the dented image of the BJP in the ZP and TP elections.

On its part, the BJP believes that though its image may take a beating, it could soon recover. According to JD(S) sources, the party had plans of forming an alternative government in the State in the event of the BJP high command showing the door to Yeddyurappa. It expected Yeddyurappa’s ouster would lead to utter chaos in the State BJP and that the JD(S)-Congress combine would easily muster the support of some BJP MLAs to form an alternative Government.

Sources said the BJP central leadership knew fully well about this plan, and this is one of the reasons why the high command decided not to resort to leadership change at this juncture.

Similarly, when Kumaraswamy tried to topple the Government by making a dozen of the ruling party MLAs and five independents withdraw their support last month, the ruling party outsmarted the Opposition JD(S) by ensuring disqualification of all the rebels from the Assembly. Yeddyurappa, as a result, won two back-to-back trust votes and managed to save his Government.

Litmus test

The political slug-fest between the Yeddyurappa-led BJP and the Kumaraswamy-led JD(S) will only become more fierce during the coming ZP and TP elections.  For Yeddyurappa, the elections will be a litmus test of his popularity, and for Kumaraswamy, they will prove whether his efforts have yielded results (in denting the BJP’s image and gain the confidence of BJP voters) or not.