Going into this year’s polls, the BJP remains a strong contender, especially in its longstanding bastion in the economically well-off coastal Karnataka districts and in the urban seats of Bangalore.
With half of Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha seats going to polls on Friday — the other 14 will be voting in the third phase on May 7 — the contest in the state has assumed enormous significance not just for the BJP, which will be hoping to hold on to its only sure foothold in the south. For Congress too, whose campaign in the state is being led by its top national leaders, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy, D K Shivakumar, the 2024 elections are a test of its ability to turn last year’s decisive victory in the Assembly elections in its favour in a Parliamentary contest. As for the JD(S), the heaviest loser in 2023, the stakes are even higher in this year’s elections, its challenge framed by party leader and former chief minister, H D Kumaraswamy as a question of the party’s “survival”.
Going into this year’s polls, the BJP remains a strong contender, especially in its longstanding bastion in the economically well-off coastal Karnataka districts and in the urban seats of Bangalore — Central, North and South — where it retains a robust voter base among the middle class. From 1991, when it marked its entry in Karnataka by winning three seats, to 2019, when it routed the Congress-JD(S) alliance by winning 25 seats, the party has been a prominent feature of the state’s political landscape. Even as it pitches strongly for its “national development” vision under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the continuing support of the powerful Lingayat community, the BJP is also relying on issues it has played up in the past, “love jihad” for instance, continue to have resonance. This has acquired a sharper edge since the murder of a young woman in Hubballi — the BJP has accused the ruling Congress of “appeasement”. The JD (S), this time in alliance with the BJP, too has latched onto these issues, banking on the promise of “development” and the PM’s popularity, besides appealing to the dominant Vokkaliga community, over much of which it retains its sway, especially in South Karnataka. This combination, it hopes, will deliver the party to victory in the three seats it is contesting: Mandya, Hassan — the seat from which its only MP in 2019, Prajwal Revanna, was elected — and Kolar.
The Congress, on the other hand, has made a strong welfare pitch, taking off from the Siddaramaiah government’s “guarantee” schemes. While it expects to draw some support from the Vokkaligas — deputy CM D K Shivakumar hails from the community, with his brother, D K Suresh, winning Congress’s only seat, Bangalore Rural, in 2019 — following Siddaramaiah’s resurrection of AHINDA (minorities, backward classes and Dalits) politics, the party is expecting to consolidate its traditional voter base among weaker communities. This hope is not without basis, as the AHINDA vote, including the Left Dalits who had earlier supported the BJP, played a key role in Congress’s Assembly poll victory in May last year. With this factor, along with its success in playing up the narrative of a BJP-run Centre withholding funds from the state — including for drought relief — Congress hopes for a reversal of the 2019 tide.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 26-04-2024 at 07:30 IST
