How they use electoral success to breed further success

As Karnataka gears up to vote again,a look at some of these varied stories:

The undefeated

In colloquial Kannada,the expression for a leader never defeated is “Soll illada Sardara”. It is a sobriquet that has been used to describe the late S Bangarappa and former chief minister Dharam Singh,and is now used for Union minister Mallikarjun Kharge.

The SC leader,70,won nine consecutive assembly polls,starting 1972,from the Gulbarga region of north Karnataka. Now labour minister at the Centre,he had emerged on the political scene as a labour union activist in the late 1960s.

Chosen by the Congress to contest in 1972 from Gurmitkal,he became a minister in 1976 in the government of Devaraj Urs. In 1983,1994 and 2008,even as the Congress lost,Kharge remained undefeated (he shifted from Gurmitkal to Chittapur for the last of these polls,following delimitation).

Political observers say that during his first term as MLA,Kharge used his access to power to forge a system of politics of patronage. His rivals call him a casteist politician,while others attribute his success to a commitment to development,which has seen Gurmitkal advance in terms of roads,education and basic facilities far ahead of neighbouring regions. The recent decision of the UPA to bestow a special development status on the backward Hyderabad-Karnataka region — a key issue in the May 5 polls — is widely attributed to his efforts in New Delhi.

“The continued success of leaders such as Kharge is related to their ability to build an eco-system of people who are tied to them,” says Prof M V Rajeev Gowda,chairperson of the Centre for Public Policy at IIMB and a Congress member. “The leader sustains important people in the constituency,who in turn sustain the leader.”

The outsiders

Former Congress chief minister N Dharam Singh,a Rajput,and former Janata Dal minister P G R Sindhia,a Maratha,are two exceptions to the theory that a large caste base is necessary for success.

Dharam Singh,76,now MP,won eight times from Jewargi in Gulbarga until he was defeated in 2008. Like Kharge,he emerged as a union leader from the region and was propelled into power by the wave of support for the Congress in 1972. Unlike Kharge,he is widely perceived to be a votary only of the politics of patronage. This has earned him the sobriquet “Ajath Shatru”,or man without enemies,but is now also seen as the root of his eventual downfall. “He is seen as the kind of politician who will attend every wedding or help anyone who asks,but development is not at the centre of his politics,” says a north Karnataka-based political observer.

Sindhia,63,now a Janata Dal Secular candidate,is a six-time MLA from Kanakapura in rural Karnataka and was made a minister on his very first term as MLA,in 1983 in Ramakrishna Hegde’s Janata Party government.

“The success stories of Dharam Singh and Sindhia are similar to Kharge’s. They came to power on an electoral wave for their party and used that power to built an eco-system of linkages in their constituencies,which has sustained them,” says Prof Rajeev Gowda. One way these leaders stayed elected over several terms,observers say,was by offering public contracts to local leaders.

Caste and control

One district that often draws gasps for its progress is Hassan in the south,home of former chief minister and prime minister H D Deve Gowda. Gowda,now 79,has been MLA six times and MP five times over the last six decades,during which his family has gradually wrested control of much of the district,populated by his Vokkaliga agricultural community.

The Gowdas have used their power levers to develop livelihoods,education and infrastructure. The district has 80 degree colleges,which analysts often compare with the seven in Bidar of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. Hasan has its own engineering and medical colleges,and every village claims access to superior power supply on account of Gowda’s elder son H D Revanna,55,a former power minister and three-time MLA from Holenarasipura,the family’s initial borough.

The family has initiated a cooperative dairy movement that locals say ensures almost every family can earn a living through milk production even if crops fail. Revanna was for nine years the president of the Karnataka Milk Federation,which buys the milk from the hundreds of cooperatives,and indirectly exercises political control over the members’ fortunes. The family has also created hundreds of jobs in the private and public sectors.

“It is not that the family has not been defeated in Hassan. They have suffered losses but have learnt from those,” says an observer.

Former BJP chief minister B S Yeddyurappa,70,has replicated in Shimoga this model of leveraging caste and power to aggressively push development. He has been elected six times from the Shikharipura region since 1983. During his time in power in 2006-07 and 2008-2011,Yeddyurappa has launched a water programme,educational institutions,hotels and infrastructure projects.

The sugar daddies

Sugar cooperatives and factories have long held the electorate under their sway in feudal parts of Karnataka. These cooperatives and factories are the source of many livelihoods,and have the power to cause economic ruin by blocking farmers from borrowing or refusing to take in agricultural produce. Local leaders controlling these cooperatives wield indirect political control too.

Among politicians considered capable of winning on any party’s ticket,one is Umesh Katti,53,MLA from Hukkeri,Belgaum,and a minister in the incumbent BJP government,having switched from the JDS in 2008. The Katti family,which includes Umesh’s younger brother Ramesh who is a BJP Lok Sabha member,controls sugar factories,a distillery and a power unit. Vishwanath Cogen Ltd supplies power to the Hukkeri village,the only one serviced by a private supplier. “The sugar cooperatives are also about nurturing networks. Many of the owners are wealthy and connected,” says Prof Rajeev Gowda.

The urban setting

One of the few to enjoy regular victories from an urban setting is former Congress education minister B Ramalinga Reddy,five times an MLA from one seat or the other in Bangalore city. His success has been built through his access to public contracts within the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike,of which he is a former member. “Public work contracts have been used to develop a system of patronage. In this case,it has been done in an urban setting,where competition is stiff. There has also been systematic decimation of rivals,” says a political observer.

Accessibility

In some regions,especially the more backward ones,it is the accessibility of a local leader that determines electoral fortunes. According to former agriculture minister Bandeppa Kashempur,52,two-time MLA from the Bidar region,it is the behaviour of leaders that the electorate is constantly watching. “While development issues matter,what most people are looking at is whether leaders are available when they need them. Of course there are even those who show their faces only at the time of elections and who still succeed,” Kashempur said.

“Power is also important,because only if you are in power can you do a lot of sustained work in a constituency. Otherwise you can only rely on the local area development funds,which are not enough to look after the needs of the entire constituency,” he said.

The slog-over leaders

Some politicians deploy last-minute measures to swing voters in their favour,irrespective of their prospects. Poll watchers predict a spurt in organised trips to pilgrim places,coupons for liquor purchase,village festivals and feasts,cricket tournaments,funding for marriages,saris and gifts,even money in the mail.