Number Theory: Congress’s risky gamble in Karnataka

Karnataka politics is set to face a major disruption with chief minister Siddaramaiah readying to table the results of a pending caste survey in the state cabinet on 17 April and use it as the basis to redefine the reservation policy in the state. While the government is trying to sell it as a policy which will increase reservations in the state, it is hard to ignore the politics which seems to be aimed at othering the state’s two most politically dominant communities, namely, Lingayats and Vokkaligas. This two-part series will argue that the Congress is making this politically risky move to overcome what is a broken political economy in the state. The first part will explain the politics and second part the political economy behind the move.