Bangalore Torpedo Rewired

Karnataka by polls are a matter of morale for the ruling coalition.

- Ajay Sukumaran

LAST week, ahead of a round of bypolls, Karnataka witnessed a rare display of warm civility between old foes H.D. Deve Gowda and Siddaramaiah. The two veteran politicians, who fell out over a decade ago, sat together at a press conference, contemplating a way forward. Their immediate concern, of course, was to plan a strategy for the ruling Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition aimed at the impending five by-elections on November 3.

“True, we have fought each other in the past but there’s a necessity to fight together now,” former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said at the press conference. “This will be a foundation for the (2019) Lok Sabha polls,” he said. Deve Gowda, his one-time mentor, piped in: “We are starting afresh.”

The bypolls are for three Lok Sabha seats—Bellary, Shimoga and Mandya— vacated by B. Sreeramulu, B.S. Yeddyurappa (both BJP) and C.S. Puttaraju (a state minister from the JD-S) when they became MLAs in May. The remaining two bypolls are for assembly constituencies that have fallen vacant— Jamkhandi, whose representative Siddu Nyamagouda of the Congress died in a road accident, and Ramanagaram, the home turf of Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who had won from two seats in May.