There is nothing like counting your naati chickens before they hatch and licking your fingers in expectant glee.
On the day sleuths of the CBI escorted B.S. Yediyurappa one step further into the dark, deep hole that he diligently dug for himself over four years, exultant Congress workers take out a “funeral procession” of the BJP government in Bangalore on Wednesday, although the grand old party’s ability to capitalise on the BJP’s continuing strife is unclear.
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In the Indian Express, Sandeep Shastri of the centre of research in social sciences and education writes:
“The Congress clearly senses an advantage in the coming assembly polls. Given the state of the BJP and the record of its government, it could well be a political climate that will work to their advantage. However, the record of the Congress in Karnataka shows that it has the skill of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
“In the past, it has often managed to defeat itself. While the party has made a concerted effort to demonstrate a show of unity, this has still to be reflected in the behaviour of its senior leaders. There are too many claimants for a chief ministership after an election that is yet to be won.
“Given the trend across the country, it may be a good idea for the Congress to declare its chief ministerial candidate and get the party solidly behind that leader.
“In the past, when the high command declared its chief ministerial candidate, the campagin acquired clear direction and there was visible enthusiasm among party workers. It would give them an advantage in preparation for the polls.”
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Read the full article: Karnataka free for all
churumuri 
Next election neither BJP or Congress will get clear majority. It looks like we’ll have another bout of monkey games of HDK & co.
But, if Yeddy & reddy are kept out of BJP, I won’t mind voting to BJP again. I hate to vote for congress because of Gandhi Family. But, i did vote for Congress last general election because of MMS & Nuclear deal (and that their candidate was relatively clean Sangliana). But, MMS has proven to be a Disasterous Dritarashtra.
So, BJP perhaps is on to a good thing if they can cleanse the Yeddy/Reddy/Halappa/Nirani/Renukacharya types..
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It’s tad far fetched a idea at any time.
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Yes, the congress can win IF Rahul Gandhi doesn’t campaign here and they find a strong visible regional leader.
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As on now, there is no chance for Congress to regain the foot-hold in Karnataka.
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The best bet for Congress is to announce SMK as the next CM candidate and they might have a chance at it. Most of the other leaders are incapable of getting anywhere close to majority.
In the next election, none of the parties would be aiming for majority…all they need is to get somewhere close to 90-95. They’ll get the others somehow.
BJP would be the biggest loser since Yeddy will split the party in the next 3 months. So, we could be looking at an early election (Dec may be). The best thing for BJP would be that Yeddy goes to jail and they bring another Lingayat (may be Shettar) to hold on to some of their votes.
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Harkol,
>i did vote for Congress last general election because of MMS & Nuclear deal (and that their candidate was relatively clean Sangliana). But, MMS has proven to be a Disasterous Dritarashtra.
Sir, ab pachtanes kya phiada? I did talk about the “lost decade” on this very site before 2009 general elections. I also talked about the asli dream team of Shouri/Jaswant/ Yashwant/Jaitley and how the present team is destroying India story. NAREGA/FSB/RTE will even haunt our grand children’s generation. My guess is, we have lost an opportunity to pull out 250-300 million people from their miserable subsistance level living conditions and we have also lost a full decade in building substantial capacity in the areas of education/health/power/transportation/housing, etc. Please read this http://t.co/qOfvxlOP
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Though karnataka Congress has a good oppurtunity to cash in on bjp’s poor performance, history has shown that karnataka Congress will falter again because of its inherent destructive forces.
Too many leaders are eyeing the coveted post of CM from ages and their uncontrolled ambitions will ultimately result in a poor performance.
Congress has failed as a main opposition party in karnataka, so people will not by default vote for Congress.
JD S in these four years, has performed exceptionally well as a opposition party, THEY ARE POISED TO TAKE MAXIMUM GAINS in the coming assembly elections.
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+1 for SMK as CM. We have seen Dharam, HDK, BSY and now DVS as CM’s after SMK. For whatever SMK’s corruption allegations, for the dignity of the post, among them, only DVS can give SMK a run for his money. HDK was promising initally, but floundered big time later on.
Looking at other candidates for CM’s post in Cong., it would be (I believe), a contest between DKShi and Siddu. I doubt if they have it in them to get a Cong victory.
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@Daily Bread,
Thanks for the link.
There is a very incestuous relationship between Congress and the Media. It is this relationship which makes the media gloat over every small achievements of Congress and its queen mother- Clown prince combo and pan the real achievements of BJP and its allies.
Take for instance the case of Gujarat. If there is one state which is truly being “Governed” in this country, it is Gujarat. Time and again NaMo has proved that he is one able administrator and nothing comes in his way of creating a world class state. But the media never acknowledges it. Even when they say something good because they have no other choice, they bring in Godhra riots somehow and queer the pitch. Also, the English media knows that when NaMo becomes the PM they will no longer be able to lead the cushy lives they are leading now. Therefore every effort is made to paint him as evil personified.
Same happened with Karnataka too. Not a single journalist has actually gone to the root which made the Reddy Brothers so powerful in Karnataka which in turn made Yeddy the crook he is. Not that I am condoning him, on the contrary I want this joker to be severely punished for tarnishing the image of BJP so badly.
The root of Reddy Brother’s enormous wealth and clout was another Reddy from Andhra, YSR. He in turn derived his power from Sonia who found him indispensable because of the kind of money he was bringing in for party. Remember the unprecedented search operations carried out when his chopper went missing? And now think back to what Indira supposedly did when Sanjay met with an air accident!!
Yeddy was bad for Karnataka, but not as bad as he is getting projected to be.
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Anitha,
>Not a single journalist has actually gone to the root which made the Reddy Brothers so powerful in Karnataka.
There is no difference between M/s Reddy Brothers and companies like RioTinto, BHP Billiton, Vedanta, Jindal, etc. I have been advising Reddy brothers through good portals of Churumuri, to corporatise their activities and list their company on global bourses. If they had listened to me, NDTV profit ( forget profit, incidentally its entire group does not even know how to break-even) and Economic Times would have awarded Janardhan Reddy businessman of the year award by this time. Think of other possibilities; they could have been on Fortune/Forbes list/cover, they could have been proud owners of an IPL team, they could have sponsored Satyameva Jayate, they could have been on PMs business advisory council, they could have got padma awards, etc….
>another Reddy from Andhra, YSR.
YSR was a visionary, he changed the game of capital accumulation. Soniaji has great expertise in identifying hidden talent.
*****
Richard,
>For whatever SMK’s corruption allegations,
Correct Sir, fulbright is always better than halfbright.
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It is a bit early and much will depend on the perception of the electorate in the days leading to the election. Based on the current indicators, it might seem that both the major opposition parties could improve their positions though the overall result could be a hung verdict.
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No way the Congress is going to win. In the state level, people are fed up of the BJP’s non governance and infighting, no doubt about that. But also note that Congress has infighting on its side, worse than BJP, which cost them dearly in the recent MLC elections. We may still have non governance after they get elected as they may be spending their time fighting for plum posts. Apart from that, they don’t have the proper caste matrix, which is still an important criteria to win elections in India today. For Lingayats, the dominant community in Karnataka, Congress is anathema to them. Vokkaligas are die hard JD(S) followers. The Brahmin and upper caste vote will always be with BJP, come what may. They have lost the OBC and Dalit votes to the BJP. And they certainly can’t rely only on the minorities support either due to JD(S). And barring S.M. Krishna’s tenure, most of the Congress regimes have been mediocre, to say the least. Even Krishna had focused mostly on Bangalore and neglected the rest of Karnataka during his tenure.
Also, we the citizens of Karnataka are aware of what is going on at the national level. Many of the UPA ministers are involved in scams, shamelessly continuing in office even with the most serious allegations against them, courtsey the corrupt Gandhi family. They have all but repressed Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption. That may not affect the rural population. But they are bearing the brunt of inflation and food shortage due to the UPA’s failed economic and agricultural policies.
I think JD(S), if they form an alliance with Sriramulu’s BSR Party, can win the election and we can have a good government with HDK at the helm. Only HDK can save Karnataka from these national parties.
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