‘Can you win without using names of Modi, Yogi?’: Hindu Mahasabha challenges Nalin Kumar Kateel

Bengaluru, May 16: Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday hinted at the possibility of replacement of the BJP Karnataka President Nalin Kumar Kateel, who has already completed his three-year term, following the party's loss in the Assembly elections.

Kateel, a three-time Lok Sabha member from Dakshina Kannada, was appointed state unit chief in August 2019 for a three-year term. He was given an extension last year in view of the impending elections. In the May 10 elections, the Congress ousted the BJP from power.

The Congress got 135 seats in the 224-member Assembly, while the BJP secured 66 seats and JD(S) 19.

Joshi, the Lok Sabha member from Dharwad, and Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, said the BJP legislature party will decide on who would be the leader of opposition in the Assembly after a discussion in the presence of a representative from the party's central leadership.

“I would just like to say that his (Kateel's) term of three years is over. In view of the (Assembly) election, our national leaders had given him responsibility. Our leaders will take further decisions,” Joshi told reporters here.

He also appealed to Congress to form the government at the earliest to fulfill the wishes of the people. On the next move of the BJP after the rout in Assembly elections, Joshi said the party will introspect.

“We have already said that this was the most disappointing result for the BJP. Such developments happen in the election. We have to find out the reason,” the Minister said. Neither he nor the party has taken the defeat lightly. Instead, the outcome has been taken as a challenge, he added.

“We are gearing up for the Lok Sabha elections and we will win". After the election results were declared on May 13, Kateel said as the state unit head he takes responsibility for the party's defeat at the hustings.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Saturday, reacting to the party’s victory in Karnataka Assembly elections, said that he did not fight a divisive battle, and that “the strength of crony-capitalism was defeated by the power of poor.”

Addressing a press conference in party headquarters in New Delhi, Gandhi said, “the markets of hatred have closed down, and shops of love have opened in Karnataka.”

The BJP lost its only bastion in the south today, with Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai conceding defeat shortly after the Congress leads moved past 130 seats. The BJP is ahead on 60-plus seats and HD Kumaraswamy's JD(S) in over 20 seats.

Conceding defeat, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai told reporters: "In spite of a lot of efforts put in by the Prime Minister and the BJP workers, we have not been able to make the mark. Once the full results come, we will do a detailed analysis... We take this result in our stride to come back in Lok Sabha elections."

In the 2018 elections, the BJP had won 104 seats, the Congress 80 and the JDS 37 in Karnataka. The BJP's BS Yediyurappa formed government but resigned before a majority test. Then, the Congress and the JDS formed a coalition government. The coalition government lasted 14 months after which 16 MLAs switched to the BJP, toppling the government and bringing the BJP back in power.

The Karnataka results is expected to boost the Congress ahead of next year's general elections and the assembly polls in three states later this year. The party is hoping to make a comeback in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It is also hoping to win back Madhya Pradesh, where its government crashed in 2020 with the defection of Jyotiraditya Scindia and his loyalists.

The results will be crucial for the BJP in terms of next year's national elections. The state accounts for 28 Lok Sabha seats. While the BJP vote share in the assembly polls has not dropped in comparison to 2018, the elections indicate that the party has not been able to make its much-needed breakthrough into the Vokkaliga and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes votes.

The Congress gains have hugely cheered the opposition. "The message from Karnataka is that the 'end' of BJP's negative, communal, corrupt, rich-oriented, anti-women-youth, social-divisive, false propaganda, individualistic politics has begun," tweeted Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

The Bharatiya Janta Party-led government of India plans to push back against the country rankings produced by global agencies on topics like governance and press freedom, a key advisor to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quoted as saying by news agencies.

Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of Modi's Economic Advisory Council, said India has begun to raise this issue at global forums. He said the indices were being compiled by a "tiny group of think tanks in the North Atlantic," sponsored by three or four funding agencies that are "driving a real-world agenda."

"It is not just narrative building in some diffused way. This has clear direct impact on trade, investment and other activities," Sanyal said.

India ranked lower than Afghanistan and Pakistan in the new World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders. It was below Pakistan and Bhutan in an academic freedom index by V-Dem Institute.

Over the past year, Indian government has in various meetings pointed out the flaws in methods used to compile global indices used by institutions like the World Bank, World Economic Forum (WEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Sanyal said.

The "World Bank is involved in this discussion because it takes these opinions from these think tanks and effectively sanctifies it by putting it into something called the world governance index," Sanyal said.

The World Bank, WEF, Reporters Without Borders and V-DEM Institute did not immediately respond to requests for comment. UNDP said it would respond shortly.

Sanyal said the ratings also get hard-wired into decision-making through environmental, social and governance (ESG) norms and sovereign ratings. Multilateral development banks offer subsidised loans to ESG-compliant projects.

"The idea of having some ESG norms is not the problem in itself. The problem relates to how these norms are defined and who certifies or measures compliance to these norms," he said. "As things are currently evolving, developing countries have been completely left out of the conversation."

The matter is being taken up by the Cabinet Secretariat, which has held more than a dozen meetings on the issue this year, a government official said. The Cabinet Secretariat and finance ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

India has said it plans to be an advocate for developing countries under its G20 presidency. Sanyal did not say if India has flagged the issue of country rankings with the G20.

"There are other developing countries who are also concerned about this because effectively this is a form of neo-colonialism," he said, adding that concerned ministries have been asked to establish benchmarks and engage continuously with rating agencies.

Some of the upcoming indices being watched out by India are the financial development index by International Monetary Fund, gender inequality and human development indices by UNDP, logistics performance and worldwide governance indicators by the World Bank, sources said.