HD Kumaraswamy wants to re-launch his son in politics but Yogeshwar, backed by DK Shivakumar, may play spoilsport; Bommai, too, has his son in the fray in Shiggaon, while Congress has fielded its Lok Sabha MP E Tukaram's wife in Sandur Assembly constituency.
Published Oct 29, 2024 | 10:00 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 29, 2024 | 10:00 AM
Karnataka bypolls. (X)
No byelection in Karnataka in the recent past had generated so much heat that the November 13 polling to three seats has. More than the issues, targeted personal attacks have gained an upper hand, and they began weeks before the actual campaign took off.
The main actors in the tirade against each other involved mainly Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, both of the Congress and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy. The diatribe intensified as the bypolls schedule was announced.
There are several reasons why the attention in the current round of contest is firmly on Channapatna, from where Kumaraswamy had been elected to the Assembly in 2023. He vacated that seat following his victory from Mandya constituency to the Lok Sabha.
So, he desperately wants his party to retain the seat. Another important reason is that Shivakumar wants to teach the JD(S) a lesson – his brother D K Suresh was badly mauled by Kumaraswamy’s brother-in-law Dr CN Manjunath, a greenhorn in politics, in the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency, of which Channapatna, famous for toys, is a part. So the deputy chief minister wants to take revenge.
Yet another reason is former minister CP Yogeshwar, who quit BJP and joined Congress to become its candidate in the bypoll.
Yogeshwar wanted to contest from the BJP but since it was Kumaraswamy’s seat, the alliance decided that the ticket should go to Janata Dal (Secular). As expected, Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy was given the ticket.
Thus, it is no surprise that the chief minister, deputy chief minister, and former chief minister have taken this fight seriously as though their prestige is at stake.
The other two bypolls are to the Assembly seats of Shiggaon and Sandur. Like Channapatna, these two seats also fell vacant as their MLAs got elected to Parliament – former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai from Haveri, and E Tukaram from Ballari.
So, two former chief ministers vacated their seats, and both secured tickets for their sons; the other MP got a ticket for his wife, in Sandur.
Needless to say, it was power politics in full display. Also, the three winners belonged to three different parties, so retaining these seats is crucial for them.
The results from these contests will not have any impact on the Congress government which has a brutal majority (135 in a House of 224) in the Assembly but a loss would be deemed a setback since it is already besieged by the land scam charges against the chief minister.
The BJP has said the results will be a referendum on the Congress government and its corruption; Congress has said it will be a statement against BJP and its vindictive politics.
It is Channapatna in the heart of the Vokkaliga politics of the Old Mysore region, which is hogging the limelight for the last few weeks.
This is the 10th time that Yogeshwar is contesting the polls; his joining the Congress is the sixth instance of him crossing over; he had joined and quit the BJP, SP, and BSP earlier and contested as an independent too. This is the second time he is joining Congress.
There is a filmland connection to the fight. Kumaraswamy, Yogeshwar, and Nikhil dabbled in cinema and the last two were heroes in a couple of films.
Kumaraswamy was a film producer-distributor. Five-time MLA Yogeshwar is a popular figure in the constituency – he is credited with bringing an irrigation project that filled up several tanks in the region.
Former chief minister BS Yediyurappa and his son BY Vijayendra, current state BJP president, were said to be not too keen on a party ticket to Yogeshwar, who played an active role as a rebel, playing a role in the removal of BSY as CM in 2021.
Still, his exit is seen as a setback to the BJP in the Old Mysore region as the party wanted to get a foothold here. Yogeshwar, a Vokkaliga, had fulfilled that to some extent.
The Vokkaliga heartland was always a stronghold of JD(S) and Congress but it was broken in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with the regional outfit joining hands with the saffron party. The alliance won 14 of the 15 seats in the southern Karnataka region leading to a Congress drubbing.
So, for Congress, this election is a fight also to win back at least part of the region. For Shivakumar, who wants to show that he can win the votes of his community, this presents an opportunity that he does not want to let go of.
Part of the strategy in this was to bring Yogeshwar and get him to contest from here. The entry of the former minister, who has been facing several cases, has bolstered Congress. The party won three of the four seats of the Ramanagara district – in which Channapatna falls – in the 2023 Assembly polls.
Kumaraswamy desperately wants to launch his son in state politics – Nikhil lost the previous two elections that he contested: he lost to BJP-backed independent Sumalatha in the 2019 Mandya Lok Sabha polls and to a Congress nominee in last year’s Assembly polls from Ramanagara.
Channapatna has 45% Vokkaligas, 18% Dalits, 16% OBCs, 12% Muslims and 3% Lingayats.
BJP chose Bharath Bommai, son of former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai for this Lingayat-dominated seat.
Basavaraj, a Lingayat, won this seat for the past four successive times. Thus, the stakes are high for him too to get his son elected.
Shiggaon, a part of the Kittur Karnataka (Mumbai-Karnataka) region, is witnessing rebellion in both BJP and Congress.
Srikant Dundigoudar, who was said to be close to Bommai, rebelled against him saying the former chief minister had cheated him after promising him the ticket. His followers held a protest demonstration against Bommai in front of his residence.
Bommai had all along asserted that his son wouldn’t contest the bypolls. Panchamsalis, a sect within Lingayats, are said to be upset over losing a ticket. Panchamsalis number about 30% of the 2.26 lakh voters while Sadar Lingayats, to which Bommai belongs, constitute only about 8,000 voters.
Congress, which has repeated Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan, faced rebellion from former MLA Azempeer Khadri but the latter agreed to withdraw his nomination.
However, former MP Manjunath Kunnur has so far stayed back in the contest. With Lingayats forming a substantial portion of voters, Shivakumar wanted one from that community as the candidate but Siddaramaiah apparently insisted on a Muslim being the party nominee.
Sandur falls in the mining scam-hit Ballari district. The constituency has been a Congress stronghold losing it only twice since Independence.
The bypoll has been necessitated because its MLA E Tukaram won the Ballari seat in April last – he won the seat consecutively for the past four times. Congress picked Tukaram’s wife Annapurna, while BJP has fielded Bangaru Hanumantha. Both are first-timers.
There was dissent among the BJP workers over the official nominee but party leaders have succeeded in quelling it. One plus point for the BJP has been that G Janardhana Reddy, who spent several years in jail over illegal mining, has been campaigning for the party.
Reddy, who started his own party – Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Pakha – and later merged it with BJP, won from Gangavathi as MLA in 2023. He was debarred from visiting Ballari district but the restriction was lifted last month.
Reddy says the difference between BJP and Congress was only 2% in the last Lok Sabha polls and hopes that the former will make good the deficit this time.
(B S Arun is a Bengaluru-based journalist. Edited by Majnu Babu).
