“For the people here – be it the Lingayats, Vokkaligas, the backward class or even the Muslims – B S Yediyurappa is the leader. There is no one like him in the BJP, and the BJP misses him,” says Jagadeesh, an official at the Siddalinga Mutt in Tumkur district.
Nandan Kumar, who runs a shop in the Anjaneya Mill area at the entrance of the neighbouring Davangere district, also vouches for Yediyurappa, though with a nod to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Yediyurappa and Modi are the BJP in Karnataka. This election would have been easier for the party had Yediyurappa been at the helm of affairs… But the party has to move on,” Kumar says.
His optimism, if subdued, is hard to find among most voters across the Tumkur, Davengere and Chitradurga districts of central Karnataka where — facing anti-incumbency, dissent and a strong Congress — the BJP is feeling the need for a tall leader like Yediyurappa, a four-term chief minister who continues to be well-regarded by voters across castes, religion and class.
Having set for itself the goal of bucking the trend since 1985 of no party securing a majority in the state, this has left the BJP reliant on PM Modi, of whose popularity there is little doubt.
The BJP’s campaign – in visual, audio and print materials – is reflective of this focus on Modi “thatha” and Yediyurappa “thatha”, apart from Central schemes. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, brought in as replacement after the abrupt removal of Yediyurappa in July 2021, has clearly failed to capture the imagination of the voters, and finds only an occasional mention in the BJP’s campaign.
But the question is whether the thrust on its national leadership and Central schemes will hold the BJP up against the Congress, which has two strong local faces in Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar. Plus, if there is one leader who matches Yediyurappa in popularity in the state – across sections – it is Siddaramaiah.
The issues which the BJP is combating include corruption charges, rising prices and lack of enough employment opportunities. Hemalatha, a homemaker who lives near Anjayenya Mill in Davangere, draws a comparison with the Congress government: “Cylinder prices are going up and the Centre or the state BJP government have done nothing to control it. The Congress government used to provide 10 kg rice a month free, but this government has reduced it to 5 kg.”
Ironically, the BJP’s winning “double engine sarkar” template runs aground here, as others such as Hemalatha blame both the Centre and state for their issues. Renesh, a BJP supporter in Tumkur, for example, is angry about the inability of the government to tackle unemployment.
Savitha, who also identifies herself as a BJP supporter and runs a tea shop on the outskirts of Davangere city, says: “Prices are killing us.”
Zameer Khan, who works as a street vendor in Tumkur, says the price rise has added to the woes of farmers who were already facing a financial crisis. He goes on to mention how state-based leaders such as Yediyurappa, Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) had a finger on the people’s pulse.
JD(S) Tumakaru Rural MLA Gowrishankar, whose 2018 election was incidentally set aside just last month by the High Court over “corrupt practices”, cites unemployment and price rise as the biggest challenges for the BJP.
In a number of constituencies, the BJP is banking on the performance of sitting MLAs to buck the anger. Mohammad Basheer, an autorickshaw driver in Tumkur city, for example, is appreciative of the work of local MLA G B Jyothi Ganesh. However, he too wishes Yediyurappa was still around commanding the BJP.
In many of these central Karnataka districts, the BJP had won comprehensively last time. In Chitradurga, the BJP had won five of the six constituencies, with one going to the Congress. But this time, it faces an uphill battle in at least four. “There is no party loyalty, people go with who has done work,” says Manu Kumar, a finance collector in Chitradurga town.
In Tumkur, the BJP had won five of the 11 constituencies. Hanumantha Raju T H, the Tumkur city president of the BJP, rattles off works such as a Smart City project, a food processing park, a cancer hospital, the HAL helicopter factory inaugurated by Modi in February, and the rejuvenation of water bodies to solve drinking water issues, to proclaim that the party will better its performance.
“The BJP will win at least nine of the 11 seats. The voters can see what our MLAs have done. They are always available for the voters. We keep doing surveys to find out how well the programmes have been implemented,” says another BJP leader, Vishwanathan, who has roots in the RSS.
A young party vistarak (full-time worker) who does not want to be identified says they are simultaneously “educating” people not to fall for freebies — the Congress has promised 10 kg rice for the poor and 200 units of free power every month. “We tell the voters that when they come to power, they will extract the price of these from them.”
At the same time, the leader admits that while 50 per cent of the BJP’s performance will depend on this, the rest might come down to the popularity of Modi. “Yes, this area, just like the state, feels the absence of Yediyurappa in the election fray.”
In Davangere city, where a Smart City project has bagged the national award for Excellence in Urban Transport, the effect is visible in the suave bus terminal and wide roads. Former BJP city president Yashwantrao Jadhav credits both Modi and the local BJP leadership for it, while talking about the party’s long association with Davangere. “This district has stood by the BJP since the 1990s. During the Ram Janambhoomi movement, police firing on our workers had killed eight and injured 70. I was also injured. Since then, the BJP has dominated this region,” he says.
But Jadhav too is counting on another factor this time: the “around 2.60 lakh” beneficiaries of government schemes.
In 2018, the party had won five of the seven constituencies in Davangere. While Davangere South has around 70,000-odd Muslims, the party hopes the presence of the SDPI would split that vote, which went otherwise to the Congress and JD(S).
The BJP believes development works will also help it keep intact its Lingayat support base, that still hinges on Yediyurappa, while helping it break the ground in areas dominated by other communities. Though party leaders don’t talk about it officially, the exodus of big leaders such as former chief minister Jagadish Shettar and ex-deputy CM Laxman Savad – both Lingayats — to the Congress has many worried.
Again, then, the fallback is Modi – who, sources say, may address rallies in all the districts of the state. “Once the PM starts campaigning in the state, we are sure all these gaps will be covered,” says a party leader in Tumkur.
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