Factors Beyond Mere Bhagya

Congress goes pro-poor in its last leg, but BJP is rich in snubbing the ruling party ahead of state elections

- Ajay Sukumaran

At a recent public meeting in a northern Karnataka town, Siddaramaiah noted with pride that he was going to be the state’s first chief minister in about 40 years to complete full five years in office. Why the distinction is a bit of a Karnataka oddity.

Perhaps you couldn’t begrudge him some indulgence, one might argue, considering that Siddaramaiah’s first couple of years in office did appear shaky with the rumbling among Congressmen about an ‘outsider’ at the wheel. At the mom­ent, however, he’s the face of the party as it girds up for a state election, one that has become all the more crucial after the defeat in Gujarat last week. Barring Punjab, Karnataka is the only other large state the Congress controls. But it’s also the only southern state where the BJP has tasted power. The gloves are off now.

The Siddaramaiah government would like to believe that it doesn’t face much anti-incumbency. It is banking on a str­ing of populist schemes—many with the suffix ‘bhagya’ (good fortune)—that have been the centrepiece of its pro-poor image. They have been top priority for Siddaramaiah, 69, who began rollout just hours after he was sworn in as CM in May 2013 following a resounding victory in the polls. That was Anna Bhagya, a rice distribution scheme about which government figures claim that over 1 crore poor families benefit. Among the latest additions to the list is the ‘Indira Cant­een’—modelled on late CM J. Jaya­lalitha’s ‘Amma’ canteens in her Tamil Nadu—that serves meals at Rs 10. Political observers generally reckon the welfare schemes have reached poor famil­ies, but some feel it’s tough to gauge their imp­act on the elections. Rivals are critical, chiefly the BJP’s Karnataka president B.S. Yeddyurappa, who accuses the CM of claiming credit for central schemes.