Basavaraj Bommai. Photo source: Deshabhimani
By Shankar Raj
Bengaluru: Leaders of the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party have got into a huddle over the defeat of its candidate in Hangal in north Karnataka. This has cast a shadow on Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s capabilities to lead the state into the next elections.
Hangal was a significant seat for the BJP for three reasons – it was held by the BJP; Hangal is part of Basavaraj Bommai’s home district Haveri and his constituency of Shiggaon borders Hangal, throwing a question on his personal winnability in the region. More worrying, a section of the dominant Lingayat community seems to have moved away from the BJP, clearly upset over the way their leader BS Yediyurappa was made to step down from the CM post in July.
It was Bommai who chalked out a strategy without banking on Yediyurappa or his son and BJP vice-president BY Vijayendra who was the strategist behind recent victories in Karnataka. In hindsight, the party’s strategy had gone badly wrong in Hangal, right from selection of the candidate to the campaign team and narrative that pushed development aside and centred around nasty personal attacks and name-calling.
Also read: Congress continues to lose grounds in northeast India
Senior leaders in the party had recommended that a relative from CM Udasi’s family should get the ticket. A section of BJP functionaries wanted Revathi, the daughter-in-law of Udasi, to be the candidate. Udasi had won the seat six times before his demise. This not just caused heartburn for the family but also the party earned ire from the voters.
“The main reason for the defeat was our failure to convert CM Udasi’s support base into votes for our candidate. We are taking this defeat seriously,” Bommai said.
Apart from the Udasi factor, sidelining of Yediyurappa and his son Vijayendra in the campaigning played a major role. The Congress was quick to make most of it by highlighting how Yediyurappa was tearful when he was forced to step down. This worked well against the BJP as Lingayat votes, which account for 35% of the two lakh electorate, tilted towards Congress.
While a section of the Lingayats seem to have voted for the Congress to register their resentment in neglecting BSY and the Udasi family, Opposition leader Siddaramaiah’s Kurba community and the Muslims voted for the Congress.
“The message that Yediyurappa and Vijayendra were being sidelined proved costly,” admitted a senior BJP leader.
After the Hangal fiasco, the question now is whether Bommai is just a stop-gap CM and will Yediyurappa make a comeback – either directly or indirectly. 2023 is not far off in politics.
*Shankar Raj is former Editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs. The views expressed are personal.
