Opposition looks to graft ‘40% cut’ for poll crop; BJP tries to brazen it out

The ‘40% commission’ tagline has got on like a house on fire.

While a resurgent Congress is using the issue of corruption to the hilt, there is no guarantee, some argue, that this would swing votes away from the ruling BJP when Karnataka goes to polls in less than nine months.

The current narrative is reminiscent of the 2013 Assembly election in which the Congress rode to power with corruption - chiefly the illegal mining in Ballari - became a strong plank.

In July 2021, the Karnataka State Contractors Association wrote a complaint to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The forum made out an average of all the cuts contractors are forced to pay to ministers and elected representatives. It came up to 40%, a figure the Congress has grabbed to make it the BJP’s undoing.

Also read | 40% cut: CM stands ground, Cabinet condemns contractors' body

On September 8, the BJP has planned a massive rally at Doddaballapur called ‘Janotsava’ (festival of people).

The Congress has planned a counter-campaign called ‘Bhrashtotsava’ (festival of corruption).

For all the noise the Congress is making, its leaders are aware that corruption is not a new reality. In a way, the citizenry has internalised bribery as a means to get work done in public offices. What’s the big deal now?

Even seasoned psephologists like Sandeep Shastri are not sure if corruption as an issue influences voting behaviour.

“This is a huge dilemma we face as researchers,” Shastri says. “During surveys, more often than not, issues like unemployment, price rise, maladministration and corruption figure on top. But, when it comes to voting, I’m not sure if the voter takes those issues into the polling booth.”

Karnataka Congress’ communications chief Priyank Kharge, a former minister who took on the ruling BJP over the cash-for-jobs scam in the recruitment of police sub-inspectors, insists that corruption is a big issue.

“The traction we’re getting is huge because this sort of corruption is more widespread, deep rooted and affects citizens,” he says.

In 2013, the corruption was at a “macro level,” Kharge says.

“It didn’t affect people throughout the state. But now, it’s bribery for everything,” he says, specifying that the factors at play in the 2013 polls were different.

The Congress hopes to strike a chord with voters with corruption packaged alongside the aftermath of demonetisation, bad GST and lowered incomes due to the coronavirus pandemic. “The overall misrule is working to our advantage,” Kharge says.

It is not that the BJP is unperturbed. Last month, at an office-bearers’ meeting, BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh is said to have brought up the ‘40% commission’ issue, asking his party colleagues to refute it.

A month later, one office-bearer who attended that meeting says there’s no clarity yet.

“We can neither say there’s no corruption nor accept the 40% allegation because there’s nothing to substantiate it.”

BJP national general secretary C T Ravi, who was a minister in the previous B S Yediyurappa government, says there’s no need to counter an allegation that is indefinite.

“Corruption as an issue will have a partial (electoral) effect, but there’s a difference between an allegation and fact. Bofors, 2G, Adarsh, AgustaWestland... they were definitive and made the narrative concrete,” he says.

“With this 40% issue, there’s nothing definitive and it’s a politically motivated campaign. Someone can even say 80%. Who has complained against whom? Has anyone gone to court? Karnataka follows an online tendering system. Nothing happens manually. So, who is taking cuts? Those complaining should be specific,” Ravi asserts.

Shastri believes that BJP would counter the corruption narrative by projecting what they see as a strength - the Modi administration.

“In Modi’s speech at Mangaluru, there was no reference to the work being done by the Bommai government. So, they’ll underplay the state government and overplay the union government,” he says, adding that the benefits of communal polarisation will be “topped up” with development.

Coming back to a voter’s psyche, Shastri wonders if people have become thick-skinned towards corruption.

“Between an honest, but ineffective leader and a dishonest, but effective leader,” he says, “it seems people prefer the second category.”