Bengaluru: It was just too good to be true when looked through the complex lens of Karnataka’s political structure. But for a brief spell, 70-year-old Siddaramaiah occupied a space that few did—challenge a serving and a former prime minister, and almost live to tell about it.
But Tuesday’s results had other plans for the now former Karnataka chief minister—the man who the national leadership of the Congress turned to for guidance and help to not just retain power in the state, but also revive its fortunes in the 2019 polls. The state’s voters gave the highest number of seats to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while giving the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) just enough to cross the now revised halfway mark of 111 to keep the former at bay.
Siddaramaiah was portrayed as the leader of the rising voices against Modi, especially on issues like anti-Hindi imposition, devolution of tax or challenging the Gujarat model of development.
So much so that the Kuruba strongman was projected as Prime Minister ’s competitor. Gracious and deft as he was, Siddaramaiah did try to project Gandhi as the leader of the campaign. The outgoing chief minister also projected the Karnataka clash between him and BJP rival B.S. Yeddyurappa, and not between him and Modi, leaving that bigger war to Rahul Gandhi.
Siddaramaiah, who stormed into power in 2013, had become a household name with populist programmes, around food security and according a minority religion status to the Lingayat community. But his last five years of popularity and governance will be reduced to a footnote in Karnataka’s history as the man who risked his political career and the future of the Congress to secure his son’s future.
Harish Ramaswamy, political analyst and faculty at the Karnatak University, Dharwad, says Siddaramaiah was unable to handle the Modi wave. He adds that Siddaramaiah’s constant attacks about B.S. Yeddyurappa and his jail term had helped the latter.
“Until Modi came, he had everything under control,” he says, while adding that prime minister had reinvigorated life into the local unit, who could not control the rise of the chief minister.