BANGALORE: The victory of former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah by a slender margin in the byelection to the Assembly from the Chamundeshwari constituency is unlikely to have any cascading impact on the coalition Government headed by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy even though it often appeared that the Chief Minister himself was the candidate in the bitterly fought byelection.

The narrow victory of Mr. Siddaramaiah is unlikely to result in any major political change in the State.

Technical victory

It could at best be called a technical victory for Mr. Siddaramaiah at the hustings what with the balance shifting between him and Shivabasappa of the Janata Dal (Secular) right through the 27-round counting with the former Deputy Chief Minister emerging victorious by 257 votes. The result could be described as win-win for Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivabasappa, a political novice who has been catapulted into the limelight.

The Congress, flush with the victory of its candidate, is expected to seek the resignation of the Government. Of course, if Mr. Siddaramaiah had won by a big margin, it would have been easier for the Congress to shake the coalition Government, if not edge it out.

With nearly 30 months of its tenure left for the 12th Legislative Assembly, the Congress is left with three choices - wait for a split in the Janata Dal (S) and form a Government with the help of the splinter group, bring down the Government and force an early election, and strengthen the party and wait for the next round of Assembly elections.

Alliance

But given the nature of the alliance between the Janata Dal (S) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the result will not have any impact on the Government unless the Congress tries to split the Janata Dal (S).

There is a small group of Janata Dal (S) legislators which has been trying to split the party as it is unhappy with former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (S) president H.D. Deve Gowda.

To nip any anti-party activity in the bud, the Janata Dal (S) has called for a legislature party meeting on Friday to be presided over by the Chief Minister and State unit president of the Janata Dal (S) M.P. Prakash.

It is now for the Janata Dal (S) to rope in the services of senior leader M. Rajashekharamurthy full time.

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