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Deve Gowda shows who calls the shots in Karnataka JD

M D Riti in Bangalore

A metaphorical kind of knife-wielding -- whether it is sabre-rattling or back-stabbing -- has characterised the political drama that has temporarily drawn to a close in Karnataka.

Did former prime minister H D Deve Gowda genuinely intend to displace Chief Minister J H Patel, or was he just trying to intimidate him into toeing the line? Did Deve Gowda's own protégé, Deputy Chief Minister K Siddaramiah, do the dirty on his mentor and finally refuse to back his bid to topple Patel? Was senior Janata Dal leader S R Bommai really such an effective peace-maker or was he secretly colluding with Deve Gowda in a mock battle?

These are some of the questions being raised in political circles in Karnataka by those who have witnessed the changing relationships and styles of functioning of these Dal leaders over the past few years.

It is certainly true that Deve Gowda has no genuine animosity towards Patel, as he has towards his old enemy Ramakrishna Hegde.

However, to his mind, Patel can never entirely shed his old label of being a Hegde man, despite the latter's recent attempts to oust him some months ago.

Obviously, the realisation that any major washing of dirty khadi in public, emanating from overthrowing Patel, would destroy the party's already sagging popularity completely, won the day finally. Siddaramiah, who appeared to be the chief contender for Patel's job, withdrew from the battle at the last minute, swinging the balance in the CM's favour.

This time, Deve Gowda waged his battle from the house of his cardiologist son-in-law in the residential locality of Padmanabhanagar in Bangalore. He claimed this was because he did not want to be seen using his minister son H D Revanna's official residence, Anugraha, for political intrigue.

Fence-sitting MLAs found this arrangement particularly useful as they could visit Patel and his cronies in the High Grounds area and then head quite anonymously to Deve Gowda's headquarters.

Deve Gowda too was quite comfortable with this arrangement as this was where he used to live right up to the time he was elected chief minister in 1994. A popular temple that is a favourite haunt of his is close by there.

Patel, apart from having dear friend Anant Nag -- former film star, now minister for urban development -- at his side throughout, also had the active support of two other ministers K N Nage Gowda and C Byre Gowda, both Vokkaligas (Deve Gowda is a Vokkaliga while Patel is a Lingayat.)

Rumour has it that Deve Gowda's son Kumaraswamy allegedly used to refer to the Gowda duo backing Patel as 'left-right' because Byre Gowda limps with his left leg and Nage Gowda favours his right leg.

This entire exercise has certainly served an important purpose for Deve Gowda, and that is to display publicly that he is an important political leader in Karnataka with a large support base. This posturing will certainly ensure him a good bargaining position later next year, when the jockeying for tickets and territories begins before the assembly poll.

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