Successfully dividing the traditional Congress votes by organising caste-mobilisation drives and appealing specifically to women voters helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to end the political dominance of the Janata Dal (Secular) in K.R. Pet Assembly segment.
Interestingly, this was a segment where Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s son B.Y. Vijayendra had played an important role, pitching it as a place where his father was born — Bukanakere in this taluk. The victory for the party will also bolster the son’s place in it.
The State’s governing party had not registered any victory in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Mandya district so far. In spite of the ‘Modi wave’ and intense electioneering, the BJP got only 9,819 votes in the 2018 Assembly elections, in which K.C. Narayana Gowda had polled 88,016 votes as the JD(S) candidate.
“Our main focus was to divide the traditional Congress votes and encash the anger against the JD(S) to win the seat,” said a senior BJP leader.
According to the BJP leaders, dozens of teams were formed and assigned to reach women seeking electoral support. The main aim was to tap the wide network of self-help groups (SHGs) in rural areas. The SHG members, students and first-time voters were vigorously approached with a series of poll promises, going beyond traditional caste affiliations.
Though it appeared that it was not easy to gain their support, a strategy was carefully planned this time to divide the traditional votes of Congress, admitted senior BJP leaders. Contrary to the belief that the entire Vokkaliga community would consolidate against the BJP for “bringing down a Vokkaliga from the Chief Minster position”, that did not happen.
The shift in votes
However, the number of votes Mr. Gowda polled in the byelection was down by 21,922 from the 88,016 he got in 2018 as the JD(S) candidate. The votes polled for Chandrashekar of Congress last time was 70,897 and for B.C. Manju of BJP was 9,819.
