Axing KPCC not enough

By dissolving the Karnataka PCC, has the Congress gone far enough? In the backdrop of the disastrous poll results that not only decimated the Opposition party nationwide, and reduced its footprint in Karnataka from 10 seats to one, in its worst show in the state, old-timers like Roshan Baig laid the blame for the defeat on state chief Siddaramaiah, KPCC head Dinesh Gundurao and Karnataka in-charge K.C. Venugopal.

Yet, as party chief Rahul Gandhi, blackballed party bigwigs after the debacle, he gave Mr Siddaramaiah rare access. Within hours, the KPCC "cleanup" followed!

The proposal to sack the 250-odd KPCC members may be long overdue, but if the Congress must go forward, it must ask itself - are stalwarts like Roshan Baig, openly critical of "outsider" Siddaramaiah's management, to be ignored?  Congress old-timers note the tactical blunder in marginalising not just them, but the SC-ST, Vokkaliga-Lingayat votebanks at the expense of Mr Siddaramaiah's Kurubas, for the rise of the BJP. This was compounded by Mr Gandhi's series of ill-advised moves - aligning with the JD(S) and giving the junior partner charge of the government, and then fighting parliamentary polls with the JD(S) when transfer of votes on the ground was always an  impossibility.

A miffed Siddaramaiah, has renewed his old warning, saying the Congress must re-examine the merits of a coalition government that does not serve its purpose. Except, while he was right before, pulling out of one of only a handful of governments that the Congress has in the country, may be foolhardy. It maybe politic for the Congress to brainstorm collectively rather than heed just one voice.