Strong local leadership holds key to electoral victory

As seen recently in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, strong local leaders who can voice the electorate’s problems can upset the BJP’s applecart.

Today’s fractured and divisive national politics can take lessons from the Karnataka assembly elections held in May. The main factor that has emerged in Karnataka is a model that can be emulated to win against the seemingly invincible Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP).

Reflecting on the Karnataka poll results, many analysts have pointed out that the Congress, while designing its campaign strategies, approached the assembly polls as a regional party while the BJP did it as a national party. A more rooted theory is the existence of a very strong local leadership, creating a hyper-local scenario that paved the way for Congress. More stark is that all these leaders belong to the Dalits and the backward classes.

In here lies a paradox: when national parties such as the Congress or the BJP seldom encourage strong local leadership in the states, how do these leaders emerge?

Most of the leaders at the time of Independence emerged from the national movement. In the first two decades after Independence, many leaders from varied social groups emerged as a counter to the Congress’s dependence on Brahmin and upper-caste politicians. Different communities for the first time became socially conscious of their rights, and fought oppression. Then they became politically conscious through a string of local leaders and emerged as strong political groups.

Two aspects helped this evolution. First, Dr B R Ambedkar converted oppressed and dehumanised untouchables into socially and politically conscious groups by bringing in electoral reservation since 1932, leading to the emergence of a Dalit political class.

Second, in the absence of political reservations, which were available under the British, the backward classes pushed for the backward classes commissions. The backward classes movement strongly sought their constitutional rights, and fought social and economic oppression. They used their numerical strength, became politically conscious, and threw up strong leaders. Political parties took them into their fold and nurtured them to sustain electoral victories.

Mallikarjun Kharge, a prime force behind Congress’s victory in Karnataka, is a product of Bhim Sena movement of the 1960s, started by Dalit leader B Shyam Sunder. The Bhim Sena was the precursor to Dalit Panthers, and Sunder coined the word ‘Moolnivasi’ claiming that the Dalits are the original inhabitants of India and the upper castes Aryan are migrants. Kharge was absorbed into the Congress which sustained him as a leader, and it has paid rich dividends. The politically-conscious Kuruba community has produced Siddaramaiah and the Vokkaliga community has D K Shivakumar.

It is important for political parties to nurture its local leadership. Once a party forms the government, it must make these leaders a part of the Cabinet. This is important because the communities these leaders represent would feel empowered, thereby continuing their allegiance to the party through their home-grown leaders. Further, political parties must place such leaders at the national level with an eye on consolidating the regional vote. Kharge, again, is a good example of this. Political parties suffer when home-grown leaders are sidelined; an example being the BJP’s treatment of former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.

Even for family-run regional political parties, from the Nationalist Congress Party to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, from the Trinamool Congress to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, and for the other smaller parties such as the Aam Aadmi Party, and the Janata Dal (United), home-grown leaders who have a strong connect with the community are essential. Currently, most of these parties survive on voters’ engagement in a beneficiary mode by creating a hyper-welfare state. The Karnataka model accentuates welfare with conspicuous multiple leadership. That was how family-run Janata Dal (Secular) has performed poorly in the May elections.

While the Congress win in the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections can be factored to strong local leadership, the party has also benefitted because of its home-grown leaders in Chhattisgarh, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh. For the BJP, which created non-Yadav and non-Jatav leadership to win Uttar Pradesh, power sharing with the backward class and the Dalit leadership is missing.

When local leaders become a part of the power-sharing equation, social justice and hyper-local issues attain primacy. It was Karnataka’s local leadership that pushed the Congress to declare its social justice plank on caste census and breaching fifty per cent reservations. The local leadership also made the national leadership celebrate the local pride and culture.

In the coming series of elections, the national party which is able to customise its campaign to meet local demands and one which gives space for its local leaders who have a connect with the people will stand a better chance at the hustings.

(Rehnamol Raveendran teaches political science at University of Allahabad.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.