That gives it time to set its own house in order
Javed M Ansari and Nistula Hebbar. New Delhi
On the face of it, the crisis in Karnataka is just what the opposition party, in this case the Congress, wanted. The government is shaky and the ruling party appears split down the middle. And yet, senior Congress leaders in Delhi and the state are not thinking of early elections.
The party wants the fractious situation in the BJP to continue till, at least, the Yeddyurappa government is thoroughly discredited.
Most Congress leaders feel the immense wealth of the Reddy brothers has allowed chief minister BS Yeddyurappa to claim the moral high ground.
"During the assembly election, Yeddyurappa won a decisive mandate by drawing sympathy as the party that suffered in the failed coalition between the BJP and the Janata Dal(S). Yeddyurappa claimed that a scheming Kumaraswamy had cheated him out of the CM's chair. This time round, he will claim that he lost his seat because of the sheer money power of the Reddy brothers. In all this, the Congress will be marginal to the discourse," said a senior leader from the state.
The Congress feels only a prolonged faction fight would benefit them by exposing both the chief minister and the Reddy brothers as an ambitious and divided group incapable of providing a stable government. "This would give us a platform to argue that the BJP cannot provide governance," he said.
The Congress, which was clearly fishing in troubled waters during the early days of the crisis, accusing the government of abandoning flood relief work in favour of politicking, has now become decidedly circumspect. "Frankly, we too have to pull up our socks when it comes to organisational matters. After the bad showing in the 2008 assembly and 2009 general elections, we need to regroup," the source said.
Ideally, the Congress leadership would like the crisis in the BJP to continue for a period of time so that the party is discredited and the state leadership totally enfeebled. "For us, the best case scenario is for the Yeddyurappa government to continue in an impaired form, and for elections to happen when scheduled. Failing that, we only envisage the assembly being placed under suspended animation," the leader said.