Gowda-Patel Bury The Hatchet In Karnataka

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and Chief Minister J H Patel met on Monday to sort out the feud between factions in the party.

The various factions within the ruling Janta Dal (JD) in Karnataka have aligned themselves with Patel, much to the chagrin of the Gowda group. This teaming together of various groups, whose primary binding factor seems to be an anti-Gowda stance, has forced the Gowda faction of JD to declare truce with Chief Minister Patel. After a week-long statement war between the two groups, Gowda and Patel met to declare that everything has been sorted out. However, the joint declaration: no threat to JD regime and what has been discussed was an internal matter of the party, does not seem to have many buyers.

 

After the meet, the Gowda group convened a meeting of more than forty JD legislators on Tuesday (fourth in ten days). Both Gowda and Patel described the meet as a fallout of their conclave, where the legislators were notified of its outcome. However, sources close to the Chief Minister said: Patel has told Deve Gowda in clear terms that the official group may retaliate if interference in state affairs continues unabated. The tough talk by Patel may have forced Gowda to abandon his plans to ask the Chief Minister to strip Hegde loyalists of important ministries in the government, sources added.

The truce has also had a negative fallout, as the powerful backward castes lobby is upset with the way deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah was sidelined by the Patel-Gowda duo (both belong to upper castes Lingayat and Vokkaliga). The cabinet had authorised both the Chief Minister and his deputy to meet Gowda to thrash out the dissidence issue on Friday, after Patel threatened to quit over Gowda groups antics. However, Siddaramaih, who has since identified with the R L Jalappa faction, was left in the dark by them.

Despite the joint declaration, some ministers close to the Chief Minister have already started mobilising legislators to counter any attempt to destabilise his government. According to a minister, a group of Vokkaliga and backward class legislators would hold a meeting during the third week of this month to show their support to Patel. The idea, the minister told Business Standard: is to show to the world that Deve Gowda does not enjoy the support of even the Vokkaligas in the state.

Deve Gowda wants to enhance his bargaining power in Delhi by demonstrating that he has a stronghold over JD in Karnataka. And he has long-term plans to clip Patel and Hegde loyalists and fill the ministry with his own men. Hence, this drama of series of legislators meetings, was how a three time MLA, who attended two of Gowdas meetings, explains the situation.

But with the JD legislature party fragmented into Jalappa faction, Gowda group, Patel faction, Hegde loyalists and neutral legislators, an attempt by any one group to bother Patel becomes insignificant, sources say. Besides, says a minister close to Deve Gowda, our leader has unnecessarily humiliated some Vokkaliga ministers and has created an innumerable number of foes within the ruling party. No wonder most of these factions have started acting in tandem to checkmate Deve Gowda, much to the delight of Patel and his team.

Party functionaries and some cabinet ministers maintain dissidence will continue to rock the ruling party for some more months.