‘Now the Congress has no funding source in the entire South’.
Hyderabad: The change of guard in Karnataka this week is going to hit the prospects of Congress in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the coming days. The Congress-Janata Dal Secular government led by H.D. Kumaraswamy in this major southern state used be a sheet anchor for the grand old party which is struggling to stage a comeback in the region, but now such chances are dimmed.
Many may wonder about how a party staying in power in a state would affect its prospects in a neighbouring state, but the operations of national parties are fashioned in such a manner that the states where they are in power would look after the funding needs of units in states where they are in opposition.
It is an open secret that Congress, which has been in power in Karnataka for six years—five of it on its own and one as a coalition partner—has been looking after the organizational needs of its units in Andhra and Telangana. Though Kumaraswamy was the Chief Minister, it was Congress which called the shots in major decisions like awarding of contracts and granting permissions for major infrastructure projects in Karnataka.
During Telangana’s Assembly elections last December, several Karnataka ministers, including powerful D.K. Shivakumar, camped in Hyderabad and coordinated the party affairs. Shivakumar, who held plum portfolios of irrigation and medical education, had virtually called the shots for the election funding of many candidates, sources said. When some surveys of Congress suggested a hung Assembly in Telangana, Shivakumar rushed here again and began negotiations with possible winners from other parties to form government led by his party. However, that didn’t happen as TRS won 88 out of the 119 Assembly seats then. All Telangana Congress leaders made a beeline to a star hotel where Shivakumar camped at the time.
It was not uncommon in Congress that AICC functionaries vie with each other to get in-charge roles for the states where its party is in power. Posts like AICC general secretary and secretary may appear light-weight to many, but the persons who bag them and are made in-charges of states where the party is in power enjoy clout equal to a minister, explained sources in the party.
An ex-MP and AICC secretary in charge of Karnataka had managed to secure Assembly tickets for many of his candidates in the Telangana Assembly elections because of his perceived ability to get election funds from the neighbouring state. Interestingly, he used to sit in Bangalore and managed the election campaign in Telangana on telephone. He, however, lost the parliament elections later.
Same is the case with Andhra where Congress leaders used to get funds, although in small amounts, from Karnataka, through lobbying for industrialists and businessmen. In fact, most of the power, irrigation and infra projects in Karnataka were executed by contractors from Andhra. These Andhra Congress leaders used to lobby for clearance of their pending bills from Karnataka government, in lieu of a favour.
Some Congress seniors in Hyderabad had admitted that the fall of the Congress-JDS regime in Karnataka was a major blow to their party in Telangana. “Now the BJP will not allow a free-run to the contractors close to us and that will affect our financial prospects,” said a Congress MLC who currently owns some power projects in Karnataka. Now, the Congress has no funding source in the entire South. Compared to Telangana, the interests of Congress in Andhra Pradesh are minimal as the party is on a weak wicket there. Still, the party leaders who are supposed to run the state unit usually depended for their financial needs till now on the Karnataka government. Now, it will be a problem for them to manage even day- to-day affairs of the party offices which require around Rs 2 lakh per month.
The fall of the Congress-JDS government is also a loss to Congress in Maharashtra where Assembly elections are due soon, but the availability of its government in Chhattisgarh or two other nearby states—Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan—might solve the problem, sources explained.