The people of Karnataka have grown tired of coalition governments. The common people all over the State are telling the television journalists who stretch the mike before them that they want stable governments. Though they are not saying in so many words, what the people desire is single party administration. The people seem to have voted in their minds against coalition governments. I don't wish to go into the findings of an opinion poll as they have a history of fallibility.

Compared with some other States in the Union, Karnataka has had a very short history of coalition governments. Only the 2004 elections brought about a coalition government. There is some meaning in the view that the Janata –Karnataka Kranti Ranga government formed after the 1983 elections was a coalition. However the Janata Party and the Kranti Ranga had fought the election on a common symbol. Later the Ranga merged with the Janata Party. The first Ramakrishna Hegde government had the support of MLAs elected as independents or on the symbol of other parties like C.Byre Gowda and even Siddaramaiah (who in 1983 was elected as a Lok Dal candidate).

Historically, the State of Mysore had a coalition government in the years after Independence. The government of K.C.Reddy had three non-Congress ministers, Pamadi Subbarama Setty, D.H.Chandrasekaraiya and Mohamed Sharief. The last belonged to the Muslim League.

The people of Karnataka, who were used to single party rule or misrule at times, grew tired of coalition arrangements within 40 months which witnessed two coalitions and a single party government (of Yeddyurappa)  collapse.  The villain of the piece for the collapse of all the three was no doubt the Janata Dal (Secular). Interestingly it was the leaders of the JD (S) who had wrecked a strong single party government that of Ramakrishna Hegde formed after the 1985 elections.

Whatever be the dominant desire of the people of the State as also the ideal political arrangement, there are inherent obstacles to the formation of a single party regime in the State. Karnataka is one of the States without a two party or two political grouping system. There are three major parties, BJP, Congress and the JD (S) going by the number of seats they had in the dissolved Assembly. In that respect Karnataka is the exception even in South India where Andhra Pradesh has a two party system and Tamil Nadu and Kerala the two political grouping system. The situation in Karnataka is similar to that in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya.

For a stable single party government to be formed, one of the three major parties has to triumph in next month's elections and the other two have to lose if not badly. In the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party triumphed leaving the Samajawadi Party, the BJP and the Congress far behind .

Though Karnataka has been a traditional single party governed State, stability had eluded it for some years. Dissidence plagued the Congress governments of both K.C.Reddy and Kengal Hanumanthaiya. The Janata or Janata Dal governments suffered from the fact that they had too many leaders- R.K.Hegde, H.D.Deve Gowda, and S.R.Bommai as also others. Though the Congress had a steamroller majority (180 plus) it provided three weak governments during 1989-94. Indiscipline in the Congress legislature party was at its peak and the party MLAs had staged dharnas on the floor of the Legislative Assembly on two occasions when Veerappa Moily was the chief minister.

The bitter fact has to be faced that after the first general elections in 1952, only one government lasted its full term and even got a one year bonus of extension, the Devaraj Urs government elected in 1972 which lasted six years thanks to a constitutional amendment introduced in the days of the Emergency. The Congress was no doubt in power during 1962 to 1967 but not its chief minister S.Nijalingappa, who was elected in a by-election three months after the Assembly was formed. The S.M.Krishna government did not last its full term of five years as the House was dissolved four months in advance. The State had witnessed three governments in the 1952-57 period though the Congress was the monarch in Mysore (Karnataka) as also in India in those days.

As the political parties are releasing the list of their candidates, painfully slowly for the coming elections, the BJP and the Congress appear to be vying for power. The JD (S) supremo H.D.Deve Gowda has been threatening another hung assembly and another coalition by saying that no government could be formed without the participation of his party. There are no master blasters like Narendra Modi or Mayawati in any of the major parties to sweep the polls in Karnataka.

But the average voter, who has so far only expressed his preference for stability, might opt for one party of his choice. As the Karnataka voter has generally opted for national parties, the fight boils down to the BJP and the Congress. The JD (S) is a force only in Karnataka. The BJP has already gone to town saying that it should be given a clear mandate as its first government in South India was sabotaged by the perfidious JD (S) leaders. The Congress will harp on the stability plank (though the facts mentioned earlier point to the contrary). The JD (S) has to explain for bringing down three governments and imposing on the people of the State an election at the height of summer. It is hoped that the hot weather in most parts of the State will not keep the voters away from the polling stations. It is also prayed that the people will not vote for independents with umbrella as their symbol and invite instability!