Roughhousing in Karnataka

In more than half a dozen states, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in the Opposition.

- ADITI PHADNIS

In Jharkhand it has been out of power for five years, but it robustly criticises the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the ruling party, regularly, focusing on deficiencies in governance and delivery. In West Bengal, despite periodic internal differences among leaders on how the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government should be targeted, the Opposition is fierce. In Punjab, it is yet to emerge as a significant Opposition voice. It tries in Delhi.

But wherever it is in the Opposition, nowhere is the party as much at odds with itself as it is in Karnataka. Internal squabbling spilled out into the open after the results of the by-elections last month, all of which the BJP lost. Three Assembly seats—Shiggaon, Sandur, and Channapatna—fell vacant after their representatives resigned on being elected to the Lok Sabha. The Shiggaon seat was held by BJP leader and former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, who was elected to the Haveri Lok Sabha seat.

Channapatna was earlier represented by H D Kumaraswamy, who had defeated the BJP in the previous election when his party, the Janata Dal (Secular), was in alliance with the Congress. Now he is a Union minister and a BJP ally.

The Congress retained the Sandur constituency, where E Tukaram had won in the previous election, defeating the BJP.