Voters in general are feeling bad that the Congress-JDS combine forced Yeddyurappa out in the name of secularism.
The mood of the people in Karnataka kept swinging left, right and centre as and when pieces of information kept trickling in during the three-day high drama, beginning right from showing the trends of assembly election results on TV till the time BJP veteran B.S. Yeddyurappa tendering his resignation as Chief Minister, like never before.
The state saw unprecedented reaction from millions of people. The initial lead that the BJP got brought in a kind of euphoria among the urban voters and the Lingayat community alike. But it subsided a little as the saffron party settled for 104, just 8 short of majority. However, the fractured verdict still saw assertion of Yeddyurappa. For his supporters, it was a moment that they had been waiting for half a decade.
Tejasvi, a young social media wing activist of BJP, was euphoric till Friday, but the outcome of Saturday trust vote made him feel sad. The dramatic resignation of Yeddyurappa shocked him like millions of others. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, he said, “The speech of Yeddyuarppa ji was quite emotional. We will double our resolve to work hard for the party here on. It is sad to link Yeddyurappa to one caste as was made out. He is a mass leader.”
Tejasvi was not alone in the BJP who felt cheated. The mandate, many claimed, belonged to the BJP and not to anybody else. The young brigade in the party, which had really worked hard, was equally shocked. Harish Gowda, Bengaluru city secretary of party’s youth front BYJM, was not convinced by the sequence of events. “I am a Vokkaliga, but at same time an Indian. It’s sad that the Opposition converted the fight to Lingayat versus Vokkaliga. Modiji has ensured that all of us work for the nation. We are determined to do the same, so what if we are no longer in power,” said a disenchanted Harish speaking to The Sunday Guardian.
“Interestingly, all this was happening in a city where nearly half the voters didn’t turn up to cast their vote on the polling day. While the poll percentage in Karnataka was 72.11%, Bengaluru city recorded just over 51.3% polling with some constituencies polling as low as 43.6%,” said Feroze Sait, an activist who encourages people to vote.
Feroze, who runs voluntary organisation Harmony Foundation, was highly critical of city voters for their apathy. “People in Bengaluru can’t spare 30 minutes to go out and vote but will spend 30 hours a month to complain about infrastructure. If only they spend that half an hour to elect a good leader, they won’t have to spend 30 hours a month complaining,” he said.
Even as political observers and election analysts were trying hard to gauge the voter’s mind, a question that many of them asked was: If even a record 72.11% couldn’t throw up a clear mandate for any party, what would it take to show public sentiment strongly?
The turn of events may have seen the swing from one extreme to another, but the voters in general felt bad that the combined Opposition forced Yeddyurappa out in the name of secularism. As IT professional Vikram Shetty put it, “I have no interest in politics but robbing Yeddyurappa of his mandate is very sad. They have no future to offer but are coming together in name of secularism.”
With the high drama set to continue in the days to come, people have their fingers crossed.