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Deve Gowda eyes Vajpayee's chair again

M D Riti in Bangalore

If he can never become Karnataka chief minister again, why is former prime minister H D Deve Gowda back to rattling sabres in his home state?

To take another shot at becoming PM again, say his critics.

Perhaps they are not too wrong. Deve Gowda's old friend and former aviation minister C M Ibrahim is suddenly back at his mentor's side, suggesting to anyone who is willing to listen that Deve Gowda would be an ideal choice to lead a combination of 'secular parties' and possibly the Congress as an alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Ibrahim also claims that Deve Gowda has already sent out feelers to All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham chief J Jayalalitha on the possibility of such a political platform.

However, if such a platform includes the Congress, it is unlikely that it would choose Deve Gowda over Sonia as prime minister.

So is Deve Gowda just trying to keep himself in the limelight by shaking his fist at the Karnataka government frequently?

Quite possibly, he is, as he has lost no time in making up for the umpteenth time with Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel and declaring that he will not pose a threat to the Janata Dal government in Karnataka before elections.

Interestingly, Ibrahim was back at Deve Gowda's side at a public function to felicitate newly anointed state party chief Siddaramiah, after a long stint on the sidelines.

If Ibby, as he is known in Karnataka, was Deve Gowda's right hand, when the former public works department contractor from Karnataka ruled Delhi, then political advisor B L Shankar was his left.

Now, Shankar practically heads the anti-Deve Gowda faction of the Karnataka Janata Dal unit, and stayed away from the function along with other prominent Dal ministers like Byre Gowda, Bache Gowda and Varade Gowda.

This is why many view this as an internecine battle of the Vokkaligas, the majority community that Deve Gowda belongs to.

They point out that Deve Gowda, who has always projected himself as a champion of the Vokkaligas, has now blessed select Vokkaligas with his support, and is going after other members of the brethren with a vengeance.

Consequently, some of the beleaguered Karnataka chief minister's staunchest supporters are now Vokkaligas, like Shankar and film star Ambarish.

This faction also insists that Deve Gowda should no longer be a part of the Dal, but should instead start his own new party called 'TMP'. Their expansion for this acronym is 'Thande Makkala Party' (party of father and sons)! The recent Dal function, they say, was organised chiefly by Deve Gowda and his two politically active sons Revanna and Kumaraswamy.

Barring his staunch supporters, the general opinion in the Dal is that Deve Gowda's present political manoeuvres are all designed to gain him mileage in the run-up to the elections.

Having tried unsuccessfully, ever since he returned from Delhi, to overthrow Patel, it should now have been time for him to retreat gracefully and adopt the role of party elder in formulating poll platforms and strategies. Instead, he seems bent upon making a last-ditch effort to pull rank and prove his importance in the Dal.

The Deve Gowda-Shankar break-up took place even as the former left Delhi to get involved in state politics again. Shankar was state party chief.

As relations between the former PM and his advisor became strained, the anti-Patel camp in the Dal began agitating for a new party chief.

Patel, who had by then moved close to Shankar, held out for a while and then eventually gave in. The choice of Siddaramiah as the new party chief was ostensibly a move to appease Deve Gowda.

However, by also announcing that he was the Dal's choice as next chief minister, should the party win the approaching assembly polls, the party neatly turned the tables on Deve Gowda.

Not to be outdone, Deve Gowda promptly attempted another round of sabre-rattling and then felicitated Siddaramiah in a big way in public, in an attempt to reinforce the unsaid declaration that he is a Deve Gowda man.

The stars of both Ibrahim and Shankar were in ascendance while Deve Gowda was in power. However, everyone knew that it was Kumaraswamy, then just a first- term MP, who was the real conduit to Deve Gowda at that time.

Likewise, although Deve Gowda's man in the state government was supposed to be Siddaramiah, who he had had appointed deputy chief minister, it was first-time MLA Revanna, who was suddenly made minister, who really had his father's ear. Revanna lived luxuriously in 'Anugraha', traditionally the chief minister's residence in Bangalore.

As for Ambarish, who entered politics with the Congress and later switched to the Dal, the ageing film star began to feel that Deve Gowda was just using him to further his own ends. He got Ambi, as the actor is commonly known, to contest from Kumaraswamy's constituency of Ramanagaram, which was a new terrain for the superstar. Ambarish lost ignominously. Later, Ambarish joined forces with other Vokkaliga leaders like K N Nage Gowda and Shivarame Gowda, and is now set to conquer his home town of Mandya at the end of the year.

If Deve Gowda can never become PM again, is this the end of his political career? Probably not, if the record of his contemporaries like his bete noire Ramakrishna Hegde is any indicator. Just before the last assembly polls, Hegde announced to this reporter his intention of retiring gracefully from politics. It looked at that time as if retirement would be forced upon him at any rate as his clout in the state was at an all-time low.

Now, his political star is more in ascendance than it ever was over the past decade. Hegde now accuses Deve Gowda and his friends of being responsible for the attack on his home a fortnight ago, ostensibly by aggrieved silk farmers. Could that really have been yet another of the vengeful Deve Gowda's vendettas?

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