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Spectre of split returns to haunt JD

A Special Correspondent in Bangalore

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel are pulling in opposite directions, thus setting the stage for a sooner-than-expected split in the ruling Janata Dal.

Patel's decision to expand his 45-member ministry by inducting former state Janata Dal president B L Shankar despite Deve Gowda's protests has led to the resignations of two of the former PM's supporters.

S R Lakshmaiah resigned as chairman of the Karnataka Agro-Industries Corporation while K M Krishnamurthy has quit as chairman of the Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Corporation. "Some more resignations are in the pipeline. All these will be finalised when Deve Gowda returns from Delhi on Tuesday," another of his supporters said.

Deve Gowda and Patel have been at loggerheads since June when the former started asserting himself and led a dissident movement to displace Patel in November. The move failed as Patel proved, in his own style, that he enjoys majority support in the legislature party.

For days thereafter, the two leaders did not meet for consultations on expanding or reshuffling the ministry, though the Janata Dal Political Affairs Committee in Delhi, headed by party president Sharad Yadav, had decided that they should together decide on the composition.

Till as late as Sunday, Patel insisted on an expansion while Deve Gowda was adamant that it had to be a reshuffle.

The problem is not of perceptions alone. The issue has gone beyond the line of control that exists in the faction-ridden party. The virus that afflicted the party at inception, that of splitting, appears to have become active again with the assembly elections just nine months away.

Patel appears to have given more than enough time to Deve Gowda to send in his names of nominees. "On Saturday night, the CM made several calls, but was either told that Deve Gowda was in the bathroom or somewhere else. The calls were not even returned. This happened in front of us, a few ministers and Deputy Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah [who is also the state party president]," a minister told Rediff On The NeT.

Deve Gowda preferred to leave for Hassan, declining to meet senior politician and the party's chief mediator S R Bommai. He returned to Bangalore on Sunday evening to say he had been made a victim of a "systematic campaign".

"Nobody has suffered like me in Karnataka. Right or wrong, I became prime minister. But as a former prime minister I have suffered enough character assassination," he said.

But Deve Gowda declined to say who was responsible for the campaign or why it was on. "Truth cannot be suppressed. God sees and waits," he said, ridiculing Shankar's induction into the ministry.

The party leadership, he said, had created a record of sorts by providing ministerial posts to two members hailing from the same constituency. Ningaiah, an MLA, and Shankar, an MLC, belong to Mudigere in Chikmagalur district. Incidentally, Lakshmaiah and Krishnamurthy also hail from the same district.

Deve Gowda's attack on Shankar and other Vokkaliga (the caste to which he himself belongs) ministers is being seen as an attack on Patel. Shankar was once Deve Gowda's blue-eyed boy until he fell out with his son H D Kumaraswamy. Shankar was replaced by Siddaramaiah a couple of weeks ago at Deve Gowda's instance.

"It is clear that Deve Gowda is targeting Patel's supporters. If Patel gives in, Deve Gowda will have his own men in the ministry so he can exercise effective control on the government. By replacing Shankar with Siddaramaiah, he has already gained some control over the party,'' a Cabinet minister said.

An associate of Deve Gowda, however, differed. Deve Gowda, he said, is prepared to discuss all issues if Patel only reshuffles the ministry. Expansion of the ministry does not fulfil the demand of the dissidents in November that the ministry and party organisation has to be reshuffled to improve the Dal's image.

Apart from the resignations of Deve Gowda supporters, Patel will have to contend with a more serious threat in a couple of days. "Like-minded legislators" from the Deve Gowda faction are scheduled to meet on Wednesday, February 3, to discuss ways to strengthen the party under Siddaramaiah's leadership.

"They will also take up issues like administrative lapses and corruption in the government. All this will be in the party forum. If nothing happens on their demands, they will go public,'' sources close to Deve Gowda said.

The tactics are reminiscent of what happened a decade ago. It was a pressure group to remove "inefficient and corrupt" ministers that led to Deve Gowda targeting Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde and bringing down his successor Bommai's government soon after the ministry was expanded.

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