Karnataka votes today: After a slow start, BJP in fighting position; Cong senses opportunity
With the poll campaign for the Karnataka Assembly polls picking up steam, a key BJP leader on May 1 said the BJP might not be very far away from the 100 seats mark but will be a bit short of a full majority of 113 in the 224-member legislative assembly. The BJP leader’s view was that this was a big improvement from the range of 60 to 70 seats being projected for the BJP in April.
Facing anti-incumbency, allegations of corruption, the headwinds of the rising cost of living, and the exit of a few leaders from the party’s main caste base Lingayats, the BJP is widely believed to have retrieved its position to some extent to fight the challenge mounted by the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) in the elections on Wednesday.
A strong campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, primarily using the development message, faux pas by the Congress, and use of the Hindutva card in the final stages of the canvassing phase are widely believed to have helped the BJP restore a fighting position for itself on the eve of the polls.
The BJP’s top leaders such as Union Home Minister Amit Shah and former CM and Lingayat strongman B S Yediyurappa have expressed confidence about a first-ever full majority for the BJP after falling short by three seats in 2008 and nine seats in 2018 when the party was forced to resort to tactics such as the purchase of MLAs from other parties or Independents to form a government.
Karnataka is the first southern state where the BJP has been able to form a government and has never voted an incumbent government back to power after a full term of five years since the 1970s when the Congress government of Devaraj Urs received a second term.
To defeat the BJP, the chief weapon that the Congress party unveiled a set of five guarantees directed mainly at the poor, with the intent of tapping into the perceived widespread anger over the rising cost of living, including the price of cooking gas and fuel. The Congress guarantees include Rs 2,000 monthly income for a woman who is the head of a household, a Rs 3,000 stipend for unemployed graduates, 10 kg of rice for every member of a family below the poverty line, 200 units of free power for poor families, and free bus travel for women.
The JD(S), which is the main challenger to the Congress in south Karnataka and has a sporadic presence in other parts of the state, made its own set of promises, including the supply of five free LPG cylinders per year and the waiver of loans by self-help groups for women.
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In a sign that the issue of increase in LPG prices and the growing cost of living were perhaps the central issues in the elections, the ruling BJP also promised three free LPG cylinders during key festivals.
The Congress — which was in campaign mode for over a year with its anti-corruption “PayCM” campaign against Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and the announcement of its guarantees at regular intervals — found itself on the back foot in the last 10 days with party leaders providing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fodder to attack it.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s remark equating the PM to poison, a statement by the former CM Siddaramaiah of the Congress that a Lingayat CM (Basavaraj Bommai) had turned out to be corrupt, a suggestion by Congress spokesperson Priyank Kharge that Modi was a “nalayak” and a statement by state Congress president D K Shivakumar suggesting the BJP’s Lingayat dam was set to burst — after two key BJP Lingayat leaders joined the party — were used to its advantage by the BJP.
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A Congress promise in its manifesto to ban the Bajrang Dal for its involvement in criminal activities was projected by Modi as the Opposition party’s plan to imprison all Hanuman (Bajrang Bali) devotees in the state. “First they (Congress) locked up Lord Rama and now they have vowed to lock up those who chant ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’. It is the misfortune of the country that the Congress had a problem with Lord Rama and now it has difficulty with those who say ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’,” Modi said at a rally in Hospet on May 2 shortly after the Congress released its manifesto.
The BJP went to town on the Hanuman episode, with PM Modi raising the issue to consolidate and galvanise its core Hindutva vote base even as political analysts — even within the BJP — suggested that the Congress promise to ban the Bajrang Dal was a strategy to consolidate Muslim votes and prevent the division of Muslim votes by rivals such as the JD(S). Muslims make up 12% of the population and number over 35,000 in 63 of the 224 seats.
A BJP leader said, “The Bajrang Dal ban issue will benefit the Congress on an overall basis. In places where the JD(S) has weak candidates, the Muslims will vote en masse for the Congress. The Hindutva vote is already with the BJP and this will not really matter to the BJP.”
The last few days of campaigning in Karnataka were marked by images of key leaders of the BJP and the Congress making temple visits. On Tuesday, Basavaraj Bommai participated in the chanting of the Hanuman Chalisa at a temple as did the Union Minister and BJP’s poll campaign in-charge Shobha Karandlaje. Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar also prayed jointly at the Chamundeshwari Temple in Mysuru on Tuesday evening to put up a show of unity.
The Congress has been going out of its way to project unity among its two main leaders who are known to be engaged in a behind-the-scenes battle to be the next CM of Karnataka if the Congress gets a simple majority. Shivakumar himself has been on a temple run for several days and has projected a very religious Hindu side of himself during the campaign.
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The BJP fought the polls primarily under PM Modi with Bommai’s name being mentioned as the CM candidate on a few occasions by BJP president J P Nadda. Amit Shah has said a “big post” will be given to BJP minister V Somanna, a Lingayat, if he manages to defeat Siddaramaiah in Varuna.
Source: The Indian Express
