Karnataka Politics

Karnataka - the state that is known to the world as being the home of India's outsourcing industry centred in and around Bangalore - faces the ignominy of now being dubbed as the home of political instability

Including the May 2008 polls to the assembly and the April-May 2009 election to the Lok Sabha, this will be the fifth time in two-and-a-half years that political parties will spend time and money on electioneering.

The other two were by-elections to the assembly, caused either by defection of Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) legislators to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), or of legislators resigning the seat after entering the Lok Sabha.

The state has had no stable government since 1978, except for the 1999-2004 period when the Congress ruled with S.M. Krishna, now external affairs minister, as chief minister.

In the 31 years from 1978 Karnataka has had 15 chief ministers. Of them Ramakrishna Hegde had three spells between January 1983 and August 1988. Current Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa once held the position for eight days between Nov 12 and 19, 2007.

The state was also under direct central rule for four times in these 31 years.

Since 2004 when the Congress was thrown out in the assembly elections, there have been three chief ministers -- Dharam Singh of the Congress at the head of a Congress-(JD-S) coalition, H.D. Kumaraswamy heading a JD-S-BJP alliance and Yeddyurappa for eight days at the head of a BJP-JD-S combine.

When Congress-JDS shook hands after May 2004 assembly elections none in the state visualised that it will mark the beginning of a political instability in the state.

The Congress-JDS coalition government installed on 'secular plank' that brought these...