Bypoll mandate an endorsement of Congress government’s guarantee schemes in Karnataka

Congress supporters greeting party candidate for Channapatna seat C.P. Yogeshwar after his victory in the byelection on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

The emphatic victory for the Congress in the byelection to the Legislative Assembly from three constituencies will give a stimulus to the image of the government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, against whom the Opposition has mounted multiple charges of corruption, and ensure commitment towards the implementation of the five guarantees, which have been criticised by the BJP-JD(S) Opposition combine

The party’s victory in Channapatna, Shiggaon, and Sandur will certainly give a big boost to the government to counter the combined onslaught from the Opposition ahead of the winter session of the State legislature in Belagavi.

Guarantees will continue

As both the Chief Minister and his deputy D.K. Shivakumar gave full credit to the “guarantees” for the party’s victory in the three seats, party leaders maintained that the schemes would continue and become an indispensable part of the electoral strategy in the coming days. The government is unlikely to tweak the guarantees as a large number of beneficiaries, irrespective of their caste and religion, backed the Congress in the byelections, party leaders maintained.

Annually, a sum of ₹56,000 crore has been allocated for the guarantees, which works out to about ₹250 crore for each Assembly constituency. The BJP’s allegations against the Congress government for spending funds on the guarantees instead of development projects seems to have not been validated in the byelection results.

The guarantee schemes, which did not work in a big way for the Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with the party winning only nine seats, are likely to provide more dividends to the Congress in the upcoming elections to the rural and urban local bodies, including the BBMP, the leaders maintained.

CM emerges stronger

The electoral mandate would strengthen the hands of the Chief Minister, who is facing a probe into alleged irregularities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife, Parvathi, by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority and allegations of embezzlement of ₹187 crore of the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation. Buoyed by the byelection results, Mr. Siddaramaiah said he had won in the “people’s court”.

The Chief Minister is also expected to emerge much stronger while dealing with the party high command as the Congress lost badly in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The Chief Minister is also expected to step up his campaign aggressively against the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre for delaying/denying funds to the State projects and share in the devolution of taxes.

Boost to DKS

The victory for the party in Channapatna would not only help film actor-turned-politician C.P. Yogeshwar, who has returned to the Congress from the BJP, to re-establish his hold on his home turf after two bitter defeats against JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, but also shore up the image of Mr. Shivakumar in the Vokkaliga belt of the Old Mysore region. Mr. Shivakumar is expected to bargain hard with the party high command to provide a responsible post to his brother D.K. Suresh, former MP, preferably a seat in the Legislative Council.

The Congress is also expected to undertake the long-pending Cabinet reshuffle. Non-performing Ministers are expected to be axed to accommodate new faces, sources said.