BANGALAORE: In the final analysis, all it took was two invalid votes in Thursday’s byelection to the Legislative Council — which Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda won comfortably — to expose the chinks in the armour of the state Congress.The Congress had issued a whip to all its 71 members to vote in favour of its candidate, Ananda Gaddadevaramath, when 69 members toed the party’s line. It must be contented that despite the defeat, the Congress must be heaving a sigh of relief, more so with the threat of a large-scale migration of it legislators to the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and cross-voting.In the 225-member Karnataka Assembly, 199 members participated in the byelection; the chief minister secured 123 votes followed by the Congress candidate’s 69. A total of seven votes were declared invalid.However, the first signs of a stormy future for the grand-old party of India came from two of the party’s legislators from north Karnataka — B C Patil and Malikayya Guttedar.The two had made it clear that they abided by the party directive because they are still its members.“We will not remain in the party when the Assembly elections are announced,” the two addressed the media after exercising their franchise for the byelection.It must be remembered that the Congress had fielded its candidate to encash on the differences brewing within the BJP and gain the support of the JD(S) — which abstained from voting — and the six Independents. Five Independents, who were once disqualified from the Assembly, chose to vote in favour of the chief minister.Asserting that the verdict revealed the true ‘secular’ nature of the JD(S), Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dr G Parameshwar accused the H D Deve Gowda-led party of supporting communal political parties.On the rebellion within the Congress, Parameshwar said: “We are watching the statements being made by the rebels; we will atempt to sort out our differences with them, if any.”
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