The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka has completed 100 days in office and earned plaudits for rolling out four of its five pre-poll guarantees, which helped in propelling it to power.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his Deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, who is also State party chief, have seemingly reconciled differences over sharing of power, and held two sittings of the State legislature — first to enable the swearing in of new members, and second, to present the Congress government’s full-fledged Budget for the current year, dumping the pre-election Budget presented by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. The new government seems to have settled down to show that it means business.
Though 100 days is too short a period to evaluate the performance of any elected government, the Congress party has managed the task of constituting the full cabinet of 34 Ministers and has, by and large, quelled heartburn among some seniors for not being accommodated.
But some senior Congress leaders such as Yelburga MLA Basavaraja Rayareddy and MLC B.K. Hariprasad, who were denied ministerial berths, continue to cause embarrassment to the Chief Minister by writing letters to him over their disgruntlement and ensuring that the media gets wind of them.
What has also remained an issue is the anger of “unhappy” Congress MLAs over not being accorded the “respect” due to them by Ministers and, more importantly, not being given funds for work in their constituencies.
Release of funds
The government, apparently, is going slow on releasing funds to the MLAs on the excuse that implementation of the guarantees would require a whopping ₹52,000 crore, and that assumes paramount importance in view of next year’s Lok Sabha poll battle. Besides, there is also the burden of payments of over ₹25,000 crore to contractors left unpaid by the previous regime.
The first has come in handy to explain and pacify the MLAs on the “go slow” approach in releasing funds, while the second was sought to be dealt with by harking back on the pre-poll strategy of targeting the BJP over its “40% commission” allegation. The government has instituted probes and tried to assuage contractors by saying payments will be released after verifying the work executed and after the findings. Recently, under pressure, Mr. Shivakumar has said 50% of pending bills in Bengaluru civic works will be cleared soon.
The Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar duo is also attempting to buy peace with MLAs through the stratagem of making appointments to government-owned boards/corporations to the posts of chairpersons. Party workers may also get a nominal share of the pie. In fact, the Chief Minister succeeded in weathering the storm in making three appointments as MLCs, though there were complaints among party workers that “outsiders” were being preferred over “loyalists.” The imminent appointments to boards and corporations could be an important sop to “silence” critics.
Meanwhile, the BJP-JD(S)’ attempts to implicate the Chief Minister’s son and former MLA, Yatindra Siddaramaiah, for allegedly demanding “cuts/commission” for transfers and appointments have not succeeded. The “fake letter” of Agriculture Department staff in Mandya district that was floated over alleged demands for commission against Agriculture Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy has met a similar fate. Attempts to drag the Governor’s office into the latter episode also failed after it transpired that the letter was not genuine.
The Congress’s top agenda now is winning the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections, if they are held by the year-end, and ensuring that the number of BBMP wards which were increased from 198 to 243 by the BJP is reduced to 225 and conduct fresh delimitations. Mr. Shivakumar has been laying special stress on improving the city’s image by harping on ‘Brand Bengaluru’.
With several prominent disgruntled leaders from both the BJP and JD(S) knocking on the Congress’ doors — it is reportedly considering inducting them into the party to ensure that the goal of winning at least 20 of 28 seats in the Lok Sabha polls is met — the ruling party seems intent on sorting out all differences before next year’s polls.
nagesh.p@thehindu.co.in
