If for the BJP, Karnataka is the gateway to the south, then the rolling hills and coffee plantations of the Western Ghats and the long coast are its doors to the State.
High-pitch election campaigns are on in these regions, a clash of the themes of Hindutva and development. The BJP’s firebrand leaders, including Union Minister Anant Kumar Hedge, raise the bogey of “Hindu deaths” under a “pro-Muslim” State government. The Congress aims to retain the momentum of the 2013 election by projecting its government as “secular” that can ensure communal harmony and social welfare.
With the coastal and hilly regions better off than other parts of the State, welfare schemes, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s larger-than-life image, river disputes, federalism, regional pride and minority religion status for Lingayats are not expected to give the party much of a boost.
The JD(S) is a marginal player here — five of the 33 seats in 2013 — and the BJP and the Congress are locked in a direct contest.
The BJP has for long had a base in the region, where the network of the RSS and its affiliate organisations has been strong. The BJP’s previous avatar, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, established a base here in 1972 and since then, it has eroded the strength of the Left parties and the Congress. The Chikmagalur (now Chikkamagaluru) seat, which Indira Gandhi won in 1978, now belongs to the BJP.
After the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the BJP has become the dominant party. In the 1994 elections, the BJP emerged as the primary party, winning 17 of the 38 seats. By this time, in Shivamogga district, B.S. Yeddyurappa, who would go on to become the first BJP Chief Minister of the State, was already a significant player.
Whenever the Congress have swept the region, the party has come to power in the State. In the wake of a chaos within the BJP in 2013, the Congress managed to get 21 seats, its best performance in the region since 1999.
Leveraging on anger
For the BJP, the road to recovery starts with Hindutva — as evident in its brandishing of words such as “jihad”, “Murder of Hindu Karyakartas”, “Muslim terror”, “cow slaughter” and so on. The party hopes to leverage the anger in Kodagu against the Congress government’s celebration of Tipu Jayanti, which had led to the death of a person in the district as supporters and protesters clashed.
In Chikkamagaluru, the BJP hopes to retain its base by its demand of declaring the syncretic Sri Guru Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Dargah as a Hindu place of worship. For the past three years, thousands have gathered for Datta Jayanti (as the Hindu deity is called), while in 2017, Hindutva activists damaged tombs on the disputed site. Aiding the process is the cycle of murders that continue to unravel the communal fabric. After an activist of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political arm of the Popular Front of India (PFI) which may undercut some of the Congress’s Muslim votes, was killed, an RSS activist was stabbed to death. More than half of the “Hindu murders”, as claimed by the BJP, are in this region, and some of them allegedly by activists of the PFI. With each murder, the protests have got louder, and more violent.
BJP president Amit Shah, who visited the families of two victims, hit out at the Congress government for allowing the “increasing killings of RSS and BJP activists”. The same was echoed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adiytanath, who is playing a significant role in the BJP’s campaign here.
Ganesh Karnik, MLC and the BJP’s whip in the Legislative Council, say these incidents highlight the divisive policies of the Congress. “The welfare schemes of the Congress government are only for minorities or caste groups. Moreover, 24 Hindu activists have died, and more are being targeted even for social media postings,” he says.
Yeddyurappa’s backyard
In Shivamogga, the home district of Mr. Yeddyurappa, the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate, Hindutva will not be a major calling card. Mr. Yeddyurappa lays claims to the development of the district over the four decades he has represented it, and says he is not expected to even canvass in his seat of Shikaripura until three days before the elections. Here, with his erstwhile faction Karnataka Janata Paksha merging with BJP, the party is expected to regain the seats it had lost, despite infighting due to the merging of the parties.
For the Congress, the Hindutva card is something it cannot play, as it will alienate the majority voters and the minority voters may veer towards parties such as SDPI.
“We will not fall into the Hindutva trap of the BJP,” says P.V. Mohan, general secretary, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee. Instead, he says, the Congress will seek votes on the basis of development and an “inclusive” approach.
Ivan D’Souza, MLC and Congress whip in the Legislative Council, says it is necessary to highlight irrigation projects to counter a communal agenda.
(With inputs by
G.T. Sathish and
P.M. Veerendra)
