Amit Shah Heads to Bengaluru, Rahul Gandhi Vanishes

Amit Shah will head to Bengaluru, but Rahul Gandhi is nowhere to be seen.

As the BJP is all set to form the next government in Karnataka, the chief architect of the victory, party president Amit Shah is heading to Bengaluru to give shape to the next cabinet that will be sworn in under the leadership of BS Yeddyurappa.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be coming to the party headquarters in Delhi at 6 pm and address leaders and party workers.

In contrast, Congress president Rahul Gandhi made a vanishing act and the party’s official statement and a press conference will be held by spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

There is  talk in the Congress that there will be a serious call for Sonia Gandhi to once again take the party’s reigns of the 2019 general elections and make Rahul Gandhi step aside. But whether her health will permit is to be seen.

However, Sonia loyalists and the old guard will throw a challenge to Rahul Gandhi and his new crop of leaders.

To make matters worse for the Congress, chief minister Siddaramaiah has lost Chamundeswari to his JD(S) rival who has taken an unassailable lead.

Meanwhile, sources said that the Prime Minister will attend the swearing in ceremony of the BJP government in Bengaluru.

As leads started pouring in, the BJP has crossed the half way mark of 122 seats. According to trends, the BJP is ahead in 117 seats with the Congress way behind at 68. The JD(S) is at 40.

With this, the BJP will be able to form a government on its own. The confidence shown by BJP’s chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa was not misplaced when he boasted yesterday that he will be heading to Delhi to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the swearing in ceremony.

With a resounding win in Karmataka, the BJP may call for general elections early along with the Assembly elections to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh for two reasons:  The BJP cannot afford to lose any one of these states as it will have a bearing on the general elections; secondly, with not much gap between the assembly elections and the general elections, the BJP’s mascot Narendra Modi will find the pressure of handling state elections and general elections too much to bear.

The big dream of HD Kumaraswamy to become the king and, if not, a kingmaker, has turned into a nightmare. The voters of the state have told him that he is neither the king or the kingmaker, just a commoner. With this result, the JD(S) will be staring at being inconsequential in the coming elections.

Though a state election, the results will have an over-bearing on the national scenario with the Modi’s plan for 2019 general elections becoming easy. For BJP, the Karnataka win is a big approval of Modi’s plans and policies. It will also be a comeback for B S Yeddyurappa, BJP’s mascot in the state and a former CM whose term was clouded by graft charges.

All said, the Modi bandwagon seems to be on a role.