Blow by blow poll-time blockbuster

For the virtue of being the first electoral battle in this calendar year (there are many to follow later this year), this standalone Karnataka election received high-voltage television coverage before, during and after the election. The coverage upped the stakes for the over 2,940 candidates battling for 223 seats.

TV stalwarts like Prannoy Roy flew down to gauge the mood of the electorate. He did two live shows in Bangalore and Hubli along with Dorab Sopariwala. Sagarika Ghose and Veera Raghav of CNN-IBN, Barkha Dutt of NDTV and many other Delhi anchors descended upon Bangalore to host talk shows.

The competition and hype among channels to mount the best coverage in the business was apparent. Times Now put out promos claiming: “Watch India’s No 1 channel for an election that could shape India’s politics…it’s the biggest political day since 2008…fastest updates…unmatched analysis.” And also: “You cannot cover 2013 in 1980s mode – India has moved on – have you?”

May 5, Polling Day: TV cameras panned out recording all the colour and pageantry, joys and heartbreaks of the day of reckoning for political parties. There were nuggets from local channels like TV 9 showing Mallikarjun Kharge voting in the same booth as his wife. Then there was Venkaiah Naidu caught on camera jumping the queue at a polling booth in Bangalore in true VIP mode. There was some chilling footage of Congress and JD-S supporters brandishing swords near polling booths.

By 6.30 pm, the exit poll results started pouring in. Most of the exit polls aired on Times Now, News X, Headlines Today and TV9 showed a simple majority for the Congress with around 114-118 seats and the BJP 55-59. The exit polls gave the JD-S 34-37 and the KJP 11-13 seats. The headlines on May 5 itself started screaming: Complete rout for BJP in the southern citadel, Euphoria in Congress camp, Voters quit BJP for Congress, Yeddy spoiler for BJP.

It prompted journalist Prabhu Chawla to say: ‘I find something not correct in the exit poll – because the exit poll and the opinion poll are the same!’ There were angry exchanges between Chawla and Vinod Sharma of Hindustan Times on News X channel over the issue of corruption: Who is more corrupt – the Congress or the BJP?  The exit polls had clearly set the cat among the pigeons.

Yeddyurappa was in denial mode on Times Now: ‘I am not agreeing with this exit poll…Congress, BJP, JD-S – all will lose.’ A spokesman from C-voter pointed out to the former BJP chief Minister that the exit polls were showing that he was getting only 9 per cent of the votes. As it turned out, the former BJP chief minister got 10 per cent of the votes on counting day.

Meanwhile Meenakshi Lekhi of the BJP had already begun to reveal the party’s thinking, suggesting that the BJP sacrificed Yeddyurappa based on perception. ‘Will the party woo him back then?’ was the persistent question to her from the panel on Times Now.

May 8: Day of results: The day of counting and results began with the channels belting out coverage from 6 am onwards. The Headlines Today slug read: The Deccan War: BJP’s southern citadel demolished? Times Now beamed the slug: Decisive Wednesday. The NDTV slug was: Will Yeddy emerge Kingmaker? The local TV9 channel flashed: Kingmakers or party poopers?

It was hype unplugged. The Times Now promo was thundering: ‘Bigger than UP, bigger than Gujarat – India will watch its favourite channel in a never before scale of election coverage.’

At 8 am Meenakshi Lekhi was claiming on NDTV: “Even Congress is not getting majority!” She followed this with a more definite defence of Yeddyurappa “Yes we are sorry to lose a powerful leader like Yeddyurappa but we are not brazen like the Congress – we have some shame left in us.” CNN-IBN played a sound bite of V S Sampath of the Election Commission (EC) who said: “Without an exception the parties have induced and bribed voters.” A huge indictment from the EC on the money power used by the political parties in the fray in Karnataka.

At 9.20 am when Prannoy Roy asked Chandan Mitra whether the BJP was going to get Yeddyurappa back in the party before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Mitra replied: “It is a speculative question. Yeddyurappa has said he doesn’t want to come back but there are no full stops in politics. Except the Congress, no one is an untouchable for us.” A war of words then broke out between Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mitra over who was actually getting how many seats. Singhvi began the provocation: “If Chandan Mitra thinks that some fairy godmother will come and help the BJP...” Mitra shot back: “No fairy godmother is coming to rescue you! You may have one in the party…but you should have swept by now...from today it will be Jai Rahul for you all.”  Singvi retorted: “So now you don’t grant a victory till it is a sweep!…keep raising the bar. Are you going to say Jai Modi from today?’

Around 9.30 am, with the Congress having secured leads in around 61 seats, many commentators jumped the gun and got it wrong. Manini Chatterjee on CNN-IBN was suggesting: “If Congress does not get the majority, the others can all get together.” Ramachandra Guha was saying: “Every MLA will extract his price!” On Times Now, Hartosh S Bal was predicting: “Congress will get less than 110­­­­ – it should start looking at others.” Arathi Jerath was observing: “The question will be – why couldn’t the Congress get the advantage…not why the BJP lost!” Meanwhile on News X, reports were already coming in on how the bandwallahs were out at the Congress office in Delhi while it was also reporting a twitter hashtag which said: “Pappu fails in Karnataka!”

By 11 am, the focus had begun to move to who would be Chief Minister of Karnataka if the Congress won. The hopefuls and frontrunners were named and soon the news that the Congress President in Karnataka, G Parameshwarapa, was trailing and subsequently lost, ensured that his name fell off the list of possible CMs. Siddaramaiah, Mallikarjun Kharge and Veerappa Moily were now the possible contenders. Most commentators including Congress leader Rahman Khan said they felt that someone who had contested this election should be the choice. Clearly, there was unanimity about Siddaramaiah. Mr Siddaramaiah was telling channels very honestly that his hat was in the ring, making Arnab comment: “I really like one thing about Karnataka politicians – they are honest and speak their mind.”

By 12.20, Sudhanshu Mittal of the BJP was saying on NDTV India: “We are not surprised by the results…we knew the situation. After the Lokayukta verdict came we decided to take action against Mr Yeddyurappa and we decided: Sarkar jaye to jaye (let the government go if we have to let it go).” The sudden admission by BJP leaders that they knew that they would not win in Karnataka, after the results were out, was ironic.

In fact, as the BJP debacle became apparent, Meenakshi Lekhi, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudi and others all claimed that their party had acted against corruption and had ended by sacrificing a popular leader like Yeddyurappa and their government, while the Congress refuses till date to act against corruption. Arnab Goswami punctured this moral posturing by stressing that BJP had not removed Yeddyurappa on its own: “You could not face the media heat on this issue and had to finally relent – you did not do it on your own…in fact, you blamed the media for highlighting the mining scam and the Lokayukta report!”

By 7 pm, the headlines everywhere signalled the huge defeat for the BJP: ABP News had a slug saying: ‘Karnataka main BJP ka bhari haar’ (heavy defeat for BJP in Karnataka). Zee TV was running a slug that read: Kamal Murjha gaya (the lotus has wilted). DD was saying: ‘Karnataka ki Kaman’ (the cannon of Karnataka) in an obvious reference to the winning Congress party. Aaj Tak was running the slug: ‘Jeet ka jashn’ (the celebrations of sweet victory) and beaming six screens simultaneously across Karnataka and Delhi showing the victory celebrations by Congress workers.

In the evening, the debates on who will be chief minister continued. On CNN-IBN Roshan Baig, Congress leader who won from Shivajinagar, was saying:  “People were fed up of the 20:20 match in Karnataka.” But Rajdeep Sardesai asked him to address the business at hand: “So who do you think should be the chief minister – Siddaramaiah or Kharge?” Baig replied “I am an obedient soldier and I cannot comment on a decision that will be taken by the party.” Rajdeep persisted: “Even an obedient soldier has a voice!” Baig replied, not batting an eyelid: “My voice will be heard in the Legislature Party meeting.” Mohandas Pai was saying: “This is unfair: people of Karnataka want to know who is their leader!” Swapan Dasgupta dripped sarcasm: ‘They believe in the Ducksworth principle!’

In the evening bulletin on NDTV, Oscar Fernandes, senior Congress leader, was telling Barkha Dutt that the attacks on women and girls in pubs and picnic spots by the BJP and its various saffron arms like the Bajrang Dal and the Ram Sene, had ensured that the BJP was routed in Mangalore and Karnataka.

But the main drift of debates by the evening had shifted on the role of both Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi in the election. At 8.30 pm Times Now was running a slug: ‘Rahul’s Victory or Modi’s loss?’  Saba Naqvi said: “It is ridiculous to credit him with everything.” Manisha Priyam said that Rahul Gandhi strategically went largely to the rural belt in Karnataka where people are still beholden to Indira Gandhi and he used the Gandhi image to the hilt. This was robustly refuted by Arathi Jerath, who thought it was unfair to see such motives in Rahul’s rural campaigns which were inevitable. Hartosh Bal conceded: “Rahul may be taken a little more seriously from now on by his own party persons…as so far they were only indulging him.”

Earlier on NDTV, Manish Tiwari claimed openly that the Karnataka victory ‘belongs to Rahul Gandhi’ inviting immediate ridicule from Sreenivasan Jain who said, “Rahul Gandhi did nothing except attend 6-7 rallies – how can you credit him with the victory in Karnataka?” A failed audio at that point gave some breathing space to Tiwari who came back to say: “Rahul deserves the credit for the superintendence of the entire election and the campaigning.” But on TV9, Congress leader Nafiz Fazal was pointing out: “Rahul Gandhi did not interfere with ticket distribution at all.”

Modi’s role in the Karnataka election was also dissected ad nauseam. On Zee News, anchor Sudhir Chowdury was saying, “How many points should be taken away from Narendra Modi for losing the Karnataka election?” Journalist and author Sugata Raju said on Vikram Chandra’s programme on NDTV: “Wherever Modi went, Congress did better. I have the list of places, Modi went to Mangalore, Modi went to Belgaum and Modi went to Bangalore – the BJP lost.” Narasimha Rao said: “This is a simplistic logic.” Raju said: “It is not simplistic in anyway – as a journalist I am just putting up facts.”  Saba Naqvi had earlier asked Rajiv Pratap Rudi whether the party had specific figures about what have been the electoral gains or losses following Modi’s campaign outside Gujarat. Rudi simply phoo phooed the query saying: ‘ Do you mean to say every party should keep a track on what happens if a state chief minister from their party goes to another state to campaign?..how ridiculous!’ . On another channel Digvijaya Singh was saying: ‘Who knows Modi outside Gujarat?’ and Kapil Sibal was gloating: ‘Hero to zero ho gaya’ (the hero has become a zero).

By night, the tension had dissipated and it was time for banter. Rajiv Pratap Rudi teased Arnab: “I know you are a sympathiser of the BJP...but relax, boss…we knew exactly what was going to happen...don’t scream so much!” Arnab’s riposte: “I am screaming because I think there is traffic noise around you!” When Arnab said that Lord Meghnad Desai had a question for him, Rudi was sarcastic again: ‘What does Lord Desai know about Karnataka elections? He should be talking about UK politics!” Arnab screamed back: “The political temperature is rising!” It was then Lord Desai’s turn to take revenge: “Let me as a foreigner ask – you pitted Rahul Gandhi against Narendra Modi – Narendra Modi lost!”

Anchors like Rahul Kanwal of Headlines Today teased the BJP further: ‘The Congress party seems to have got its mojo back – there is obviously no pan-India movement against the Congress.”

Ravi Prasad of the BJP and Manish Kumar were engaged in a verbal duel on another channel. Prasad grudgingly congratulated Manish for the victory in Karnataka and then unleashed a frontal attack on the Congress party over the alleged inappropriate behaviour and corruption issues of the UPA ministers. The debate virtually on all the channels shifted to what the Congress was doing or not doing at the Centre to punish errant ministers in their government.

The night ended with robust free-for-alls. As Rajiv Shukla and Chandan Mitra heaped abuses on each other’s parties, a dog in one of their backdrops was provoked and started barking incessantly. There were hot exchanges between Swapan Dasgupta and others on CNN-IBN’s Face the Nation and Sagarika Ghosh had to tick him off: “Let’s not get personal!”

Finally Times Now’s Navika Kumar invoked old Hindi film songs: ‘Kya hua woh waida?’ ‘Woh suboh kabhi to ayegi?’ to bring smiles on the faces of otherwise scowling politicians.