Riding on the anti-incumbency factor, the alleged ‘ill treatment of Lingayats in BJP’ narrative, coupled with the confusion over reservation benefits to Panchamasali and other backward communities, the Congress managed to sweep Kittur Karnataka and the two districts of Central Karnataka.
Of the 50 seats of Kittur Karnataka (excluding Uttara Kannada), comprising Dharwad, Haveri, Gadag, Belagavi, Vijayapura, and Bagalkot districts, the Congress has bagged 33 seats this time.
Congress candidate and former MLA N.H. Konaraddi who defeated Minister Shankar Patil Munenakoppa being lifted by his supporters outside the counting centre in Dharwad on Saturday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The BJP won 30 seats in the 2018 elections. It subsequently had increased the tally to 35 after the byelections in 2019, which was necessitated following resignation of 17 MLAs of the Congress and the JD(S). It further increased its tally in 36 by winning another byelection in 2021 resulting in the Congress being left with 11 seats and the JD(S) with one.
This election, the Congress has increased its tally from 11 to 33 seats and the BJP has been reduced to 16 from 36. The JD(S) which had won in Nagathana in 2018 election has lost it this time, but has won in Devara Hipparagi.
Two Lingayat rebels from the BJP, in the form of former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi and former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who contested on Congress ticket seems to have made some adverse impact on the BJP’s prospects this time.
Supporters of Congress celebrating the victory of Vinay Kulkarni outside the counting centre in Dharwad on Saturday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Their tirade against the high handedness of a few in the BJP and the alleged ill-treatment of Lingayats in the party seems to have contributed a bit towards the Congress regaining many of the seats. Although Mr. Shettar lost miserably, his switching over seems to have helped in bagging more seats for the Congress.
The BJP’s plan of luring backward communities, particularly Scheduled Castes and Tribes, with increase in reservation seems to have made not much impact. The creation of the 2D reservation for Panchamasali Lingayat community seems to failed to garner support for the saffron party in the region.
The BJP’s Influential Ministers like Murugesh Nirani, Govind Karjol, B.C. Patil, and Shankar Patil Munenakoppa have lost the elections. Another Minister C.C. Patil barely managed to win.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai posted a huge win in his home turf at Shiggaon. However as a Chief Minister he failed to garner support in his home district Haveri, where the BJP lost all the four seats it had held earlier and also failed to win back the Hangal segment which it had lost in the byelection.
In the Central Karnataka districts of Davangere and Chitradurga too, the Congress performed admirably by winning 11 of the total 13 seats. The BJP is left with two. Ninety-two-year-old Shamanur Shivashankarappa, the seniormost leader in the elctions, won from Davangere South.
In Davanagere and Chitradurga districts, it was a reversal of the last election result. In 2018, the BJP won six and five seats respectively in Davangere and Chitradurga, and this time the Congress won the same number of seats in these districts. The BJP is now reduced to just one seat in each district.
Published - May 13, 2023 11:21 pm IST
