Will Sankeshwar be able to garner votes for the Janata Dal (S)?

Will Sankeshwar be able to garner votes for the Janata Dal (S)?
The Hindu

HUBLI: The impact of Vijay Sankeshwar, founder of Kannada Nadu, joining the Janata Dal (Secular) appears to be more psychological than real.

The JD(S) has been able to bag one more Lingayat leader, and Mr. Sankeshwar has come back into active politics after his party, Kannada Nadu, proved to be a political flop. Will this development bring political dividends to JD(S) in the region?

Kannada Nadu, which Mr. Sankeshwar established with lot of fanfare after be broke away from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), proved to be flop in the 2004 elections. Only one party candidate won from Gulbarga district, but he promptly joined the Congress. Mr. Sankeshwar lost the Hubli Rural Assembly seat to Jagadish Shettar, who is now the BJP State President. Kannada Nadu polled only two per cent of the votes, according to Mr. Sankeshwar himself.

The JD(S) garnered only 17 seats out of a total of 95 from the region in the 2004 Assembly elections, with the Bombay Karnataka region giving it just three seats. The JD(S) initially chose to ignore the region. But after the 2004 elections, it dawned on the leadership that unless they mobilise support from this region, it would be difficult to come to power on its own.

With this end in view, it began to focus on the region and the Lingayat community, which has kept away from the party. It has already put two Lingayats from north Karnataka in positions of power: State party President N. Thippanna and Deputy Chief Minister M.P. Prakash. JD(S) Working President H.D. Kumaraswamy, who was here on Saturday to welcome Mr. Sankeshwar into the party, said he will be given an important position. The task given to Mr. Sankeshwar is to counter the propaganda that JD(S) national President H.D. Deve Gowda is inimical to the interests of the region.

Political pundits say that the impression is that Mr. Gowda is anti-Lingayat and anti-north Karnataka.

Treatment of Hegde

This is mainly because of the way he had the late Ramakrishna Hegde thrown out of the erstwhile Janata Dal after becoming the Prime Minister. Despite being a Brahmin, Hegde was a leader trusted by the Lingayats.

The role he played as Prime Minister in reneging on his promise of making Hubli the headquarters of the South Western Zone of the Railways has also been held against Mr. Gowda.

Whether Mr. Sankeshwar can help the JD(S) recover lost ground is the question.