Political activities gathered in momentum in Gulbarga Rural constituency with at least four aspirants attempting a ticket in Congress and BJP. It has become a tiresome job for party leadership to finalise candidates as aspirants are displaying equal potential.
In BJP, the ticket battle is between former Ministers Revu Naik Belamagi, a four-time MLA, and Baburao Chauhan, a two-time MLA, both from Banjara community; along with new entrant Basavaraj Mattimud, a zilla panchayat member from Adaki in Sedam taluk. Two others, Dharmanna Itaga and Namdev Rathod, are also tossing their hats into the ring.
Mr. Belamagi and Mr. Chauhan have experience in State politics as Ministers and enjoy the support of their Banjara (Lambani) community that has around 20,000 votes. Mr. Chauhan had an additional advantage of having close ties with BJP State chief B.S. Yeddyurappa. He had contested on the ticket of Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) headed by Mr. Yeddyurappa in the 2013 Assembly polls and ensured a defeat for BJP by splitting 26,612 votes from BJP’s vote bank in his favour. It was because of the KJP factor that BJP’s candidate Mr. Belamagi had to lose with his 32,866 votes to Congress candidate G. Ramakrishna who polled 40,075 votes.
However, the prospects of both are being terribly disturbed by Mattimud with money and muscle power. He had already swung into action at the grassroots level by mobilising the youth and village heads. However, he does not have strong community backing as his Samagar community has less than 10,000 votes. The party leadership, however, is considering survey reports for finalising its candidate. The party sources said that a report submitted by RSS has favoured Namdev Rathod, BJP’s media in-charge, leaving main contenders red-faced.
Congress aspirants
In Congress, there are four aspirants in the ticket fray: Vijaykumar G.R., son of sitting MLA G. Ramakrishna; Chandrika Parameshwar, former Kalaburagi Mayor; Ambaraya Ashtagi and Shyam Natikar, local party leaders.
Mr. Vijaykumar was not actively involved in politics till the 2013 Assembly elections when the vote-split between BJP and KJB helped his father emerge as a winner. As his father’s health condition worsened, he gradually began managing political affairs on his father’s behalf to surface as one of the main contenders for the party ticket. Chandrika had tasted defeat in the 2009 Assembly polls against BJP’s Belamagi. Ashtagi, a staunch follower of Congress Leader in the Lok Sabha M. Mallikarjun Kharge, who is decisive in ticket allotment, is strongly demanding a ticket on caste equations.
The constituency which is reserved for Scheduled Caste is dominated by Lingayats whose voter share is around 70,000, followed by Holeyas/ Chelavadigas with around 40,000 votes. Muslims, Kurubas and other backward communities have around 30,000 votes each. Madigas have less than 10,000 votes. Mr. Vijaykumar and Ms. Chandrika are from the Madiga community and Mr. Ashtagi from Holeya. Mr. Ashtagi’s followers feel that fielding a candidate from Holeya community that has a sizable chunk of votes in the constituency, would help attract community votes in a big number. They also point out that Congress poor performance in previous elections except in 2013 was due to the fact that it had fielded a Madiga candidate instead of a Holeya candidate. It should also be noted that neither BJP nor Congress had fielded Holeaya/Chalavadi candidates after the constituency (earlier it was Kamalapur constituency before 2008 delimitation) was reserved for SC in 1978, despite the strong presence that community.
The Congress, however, does not simply go with caste equations. If enough tickets are given to Dalit-right community elsewhere in the State or in Hyderabad Karnataka region, the party leadership may prefer a candidate of Dalit-left community here. If it considers the women factor as per its social justice approach, Ms. Chandrika could be one among the women candidates being fielded in the State irrespective of her caste.
The JD(S) and BSP alliance is fielding Suryakanth Nimbalkar of BSP who belongs to Dalit-right community.
