Land-grabbing: Battle of Waterloo within Vokkaligas

Land-grabbing: Battle of Waterloo within Vokkaligas
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The new political ‘mantra’ of coalition partner JD(S) is ‘war against the land mafia’. For all practical purposes, the mantra is targeted at select Congress leaders.

More precisely, JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda’s new mantra is aimed at establishing political supremacy in the ‘Vokkaliga kingdom’, which dominated State politics during the last one decade.

Visible targets of Gowda are Vokkaliga leaders in the Congress, especially former chief minister and Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna, former minister and Gowda’s arch rival D.K. Shivakumar. The duo had threatened Gowda’s supremacy in the community, while Gowda was out of power.

With Gowda bouncing back to power and playing a major role in formation of a ‘secular government’ in the State, the war to control the dominant community has taken an ugly turn, with both parties trading charges against each other.

Gowda has indirectly accused Shivakumar of land-grabbing, by visiting some of the lands said to be owned by Shivakumar where slum dwellers have erected tents. Shivakumar has not remained silent on this. He has been using the four suspended JD (S) leaders to rake up land grabbing issues, involving Gowda and his family members.

Though there were attempts to drag Krishna into the controversy, his elevation as Maharashtra Governor put a temporary halt to the episode. But, with rumours that Krishna may return to State politics, attacks have started mounting against him too.

The fight between Gowda and Shivakumar began in 1983, when Gowda contested Assembly elections both from Holenarasipur and Sathanur. Though Gowda won both seats, the performance of the then 23-year-old Shivakumar was impressive, who lost by a narrow margin.

A subsequent police raid on Shivakumar’s house made him see Gowda’s hand behind the act. Shivakumar won the by-elections and continued his winning trend ever since.

The issue was put on the backburner till 1994, when Gowda emerged as the undisputed Vokkaliga leader and went on to become the chief minister and later prime minister. But, things began going wrong when the Congress came to power in 1999, with Krishna as Chief Minister.

Shivakumar defeated Gowda’s son H.D. Kumaraswamy in Sathanur and became the blue-eyed boy of Krishna. The old rivalry surfaced between Gowda and Shivakumar again, when the latter ensured the defeat of Gowda’s son Revanna in the elections to Karnataka Milk Federation.

Later, Shivakumar challenged Gowda in the Kanakpura elections and lost by a narrow margin of around 55,000 votes again.

With the formation of the coalition Government, Gowda ensured that Shivakumar did not get a Cabinet berth.

The only way to contain Shivakumar’s meteoric rise was to dig into his assets and Gowda chose the land mafia issue. At the same time, Shivakumar is also slowly losing his grip on the party.

It is now or never for Gowda to finish his challenger within the community.

Cornered, Shivakumar is also fighting with his back to the wall, where both parties have decided to wash their dirty linen in public.