Cabinet: Krishnas induction reflects caste factor

Apart from acceptable,established images,local caste factors have also been weighed by the Congress while deciding the Cabinet berths.

Apart from acceptable,established images,local caste factors have also been weighed by the Congress while deciding the first choice of MPs from Karnataka to be inducted into the Manmohan Singh Cabinet. The two former chief ministers,S M Krishna,a Rajya Sabha member,and Veerappa Moily,a first-time Lok Sabha member,chosen to be a part of the UPA Ministry have crucial caste credentials going in their favour apart from seniority in the party.

The choice of the urbane,suave,US educated 77-year-old S M Krishna,who belongs to the Vokkaliga community,a dominant caste in southern Karnataka who make up nearly 12 per cent of the states population,comes even as the Congress continues to concede space in the community to the Janata Dal (Secular) and its Vokkaliga patriarch H D Deve Gowda.

In the recently concluded elections,no Vokkaliga candidate from the Congress was able to notch up a victory. The Congress won only six of the 28 seats three of the winners are backward caste members,two are Scheduled Caste members and one is a Rajput. The only Vokkaliga Congress winner from the 2004 polls,filmstar M H Ambareesh from Mandya,lost ground to the JD(S) in the election.

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The filmstar,who was a Minister of State for Information in the previous Cabinet,did nothing of consequence during his tenure. He rarely attended Parliament and was lost in limbo after he attempted to resign over a Supreme Court verdict on the Cauvery river water dispute with Tamil Nadu.

Though S M Krishna has not been able to cast any electoral magic over the people of southern Karnataka,specifically its rural regions,after he was voted out of the CMs office in 2004,he remains the last standing Congress Vokkaliga leader in either House of Parliament. Krishna,who served a stint as the Governor of Maharashtra,was elected to the Rajya Sabha after he stepped down in Maharashtra.

With the votes of the other dominant community in Karnataka,the Lingayats (15 per cent of the population),consolidating largely behind the BJP,the Congress sees the Vokkaliga votes as key to keeping its foothold in the state.

JD(S) leader Deve Gowdas son H D Kumaraswamy,who is also an MP in the Lok Sabha,had been hoping for a berth in the UPA Ministry as a Vokkaliga leader in the light of the Congress non-performance. There were reports that the high command would prefer Lok Sabha MPs for the posts of Cabinet ministers. The choice of S M Krishna,however,puts paid to Kumaraswamys hopes, said a Congress leader.

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The choice of another former Karnataka CM Veerappa Moily,69,for the Cabinet post is,however,seen less as a caste factor and more due to his proximity to the Congress top rung and his performance as chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission. Moily is a member of the Devadiga community,a tiny backward caste community with a representation of around 30,000 in a backward caste umbrella of nearly 33 per cent of the states five crore population. He had until the current elections never been elected to Parliament. He won from the Chikaballapur constituency on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Other Karnataka Congress MPs still in the reckoning for a post in the UPA ministry are Scheduled Caste leaders Mallikarjun Kharge,a first time MP and former state Congress president,and surface transport minister in the previous UPA Government K H Muniyappa. Former chief minister Dharam Singh,a Rajput,is also a contender.