Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo and three-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav, who successfully brought together OBC votes in his home State, tried a political experiment in Karnataka too, though not successfully.
While he continued to maintain a good relationship with the Janata Parivar leaders, especially former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, he launched SP in Karnataka. Initially, he is learnt to have believed the party had space in OBC politics here.
Bangarappa joins
His party’s fortunes seemed to look up when the then OBC leader and former Chief Minister S. Bangarappa joined SP in 2005 and won the byelection from Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency. Attempts were made in this phase to bring OBCs together with also a possibility of forming a third front with the JD(S), which was in alliance with the Congress at the time of Bangarappa joining the party. This hope, however, was short-lived as Bangarappa quit SP in 2009.
In 2013, former Minister C.P. Yogeshwar won on the SP ticket in Channapatna, defeating Mr. Gowda’s daughter-in-law Anita Kumaraswamy in an election that saw Akhilesh Yadav campaigning for the party. The SP supremo also appointed former top police officer Shankar Bidari as the State unit president to revive the party’s fortunes, but those attempts too failed.
“He [Mulayam Singh] was a keen observer of Karnataka politics. Once he had given a notice in Lok Sabha to speak on Cauvery issue but that did not happen. He had asked us to wait for a good OBC leader to revive the party, which unfortunately did not happen,” former SP State unit president Robin Mathews recalled. He took part in huge rallies held in Davangere in 2005 and at Chitradurga and Chennapatna in 2013, he said, adding that plans to bring him to Karnataka again did not fructify due to failing health.
In 2018, SP came close to strike a pre-poll alliance with the JD(S), but did not happen as the latter went with Mayawati’s BSP for the polls. However, the party officially extended its support to the JD(S) during subsequent elections after the fall of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government.
Ties with Gowda family
Mulayam Singh, who worked as Defence Minister in the United Front government under Mr. Deve Gowda, was the one who announced the latter’s name after emerging from Rashtrapati Bhavan when he had been chosen to be the leader of the coalition of 13 parties.
JD(S) sources said that both leaders continued to maintain a good relationship even after the fall of the UF government. “Mr. Deve Gowda had advised the Yadav clan during the family bickering that later resulted in the separation of brothers Mulayam and Shivpal,” said a party source. Recently, when efforts were made to revive Janata Parivar, both were in close touch. According to MLC K.A. Thippeswamy, Mulayam Singh took Mr. Deve Gowda for election campaigns in Uttar Pradesh since he connected well with farmers.
Condolences
Several leaders in Karnataka condoled the death of the leader, including Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah and Mr. Deve Gowda among others.