Udupi/Dakshina Kannada/Shivamogga: Around 15 women are hard at work, sorting cashews in a private factory in Hebri, a small highway town in Udupi’s Karkala. There is pin-drop silence as these women tactfully sort cashews, most of which will be exported to global markets.
Soon after, they are asked to line up under a tin roof where cashew fruits have been left out to dry. Pramod Muthalik, the controversial chief of Sri Ram Sena, a fringe Hindutva outfit, is canvassing ahead of polling on 10 May for the Karnataka Assembly elections.
“The (Karkala) MLA has won from here for the past three terms, 15 years, but till today there are no roads, water…they have focused only on the main roads…inside the villages, people live in pitiable conditions. I have not come to make money but to show you how development can be done,” he tells his somewhat aloof audience.
Muthalik is contesting as an Independent in the Karkala assembly seat against the BJP’s Sunil Kumar, the minister for power, Kannada and culture. Once counted as being among the party’s most staunch supporters in Karnataka, Muthalik now says he is disillusioned with the state BJP administration, citing ‘rising corruption and lack of development’.
“There is too much corruption. The winning legislator came up on the Hindutva platform but has now forgotten about it. I am fighting to bring back Hindutva and to weed out corruption,” Muthalik told ThePrint.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brand of Hindutva, blended with development — termed ‘Moditva’ — has a wide appeal in the coastal and Malnad districts of Karnataka. In 2018, the BJP won 16 of 19 assembly seats in the state’s three coastal districts, namely Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.
But this time around, it has replaced several of its sitting MLAs in this region.
While most voters in this region are willing to make do with just Hindutva, minus the development, there are some who want more from their elected representatives than mere ideological commitment. “Morangai mele bella hachiurva maadri,” said Narayana Ragihaklu, a 68-year-old Hebri resident, invoking a Tulu saying to imply that the BJP pasted jaggery on the elbows of people who can neither taste it, nor see it, but know that it is there.
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‘Nammadu BJP’
It’s 7 am, and two elderly women are sitting on an empty crate, awaiting their turn to be called to unload ‘Muru Meenu’, a Grouper species of fish found in abundance in Udupi’s Malpe Bandar. The fish is also one of the largest of its kind found in coastal Karnataka.
Melting ice with the remains of fish and crab — spread across the concrete floor — add to the strong smell of stagnant water and burning diesel.
Some saffron flags are strewn around the port, left over from the bike rally held the previous day in support of the local BJP candidate, Yashpal Suvarna, who is also in his fourth term as chairman of the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District Cooperative Fish Marketing Federation.
The BJP replaced its sitting MLA from Udupi, Raghupathi Bhat — accused by locals of being ‘corrupt’ and a man of ‘bad character’ — with Suvarna, who had reportedly referred to Hijab-wearing students as “terrorists” and was booked in a case for abetment to suicide.
As reported in the media, in 2005, Suvarna was also part of a mob that had stripped and paraded a father and son who were alleged cattle traders.
He is also believed to have played a key role in fuelling the Hijab controversy and promoting cow vigilantism in the region. “Being a Hindu, I am proud to be seen as (BJP’s) face (in Udupi),” said Suvarna speaking to ThePrint.
Meanwhile, asked what the election means to her, Malpe resident Gulabi, 62, said, “It doesn’t matter who comes to power, we have to struggle each day to survive.”
Another Malpe resident, 61-year-old Sumitra, agreed. “There is nothing for us to gain no matter who comes to power,” she added.
About 20 metres away, two men stand beside a two-wheeler, chatting.
“Fish catch is coming down and so are the prices, but diesel rates have gone up. It costs Rs 6 lakh each time a boat goes for deep-sea fishing. And no matter what the value of the catch is, we have to foot the bill of diesel, food for 10 men on board and ice to store the fish. It’s like gambling,” said one of the two men, requesting anonymity since he’s apprehensive about how his comments would be taken as he is also a full-time worker at the port.
These three Malpe residents ThePrint spoke to are from different economic backgrounds but support the BJP as they believe it is the only party that stands for ‘Hindutva’. “Nammadu BJP (Our party is BJP),” they say in Kannada, adding it is the only party that “protects Hindutva”.
“No matter who contests from here. BJP will win,” said Nitin, a 28-year-old Malpe resident who buys and sells fish. Dinesh Shet, a van driver in Udupi, added, “We have problems of 94(C) (title deeds) and some water problems in Kaup, but these parts are BJP’s stronghold. Modi is also there.”
On support for the BJP in coastal Karnataka, Sharan Kumar (Pumpwell) — Karnataka southern regional chief of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) — told ThePrint that the “question of corruption never comes up” here. “No matter what allegations they (candidates) face, workers toil only on the basis of how much these MLAs have done for Hindutva,” he said.
In April last year, Santosh K. Patil, a private contractor and national secretary of a Hindutva outfit called Hindu Vahini had died by suicide in a hotel in Udupi. Patil had in his last messages to friends and family blamed K.S. Eshwarappa, then Rural Development and Panchayat Raj minister and BJP MLA from Shivamogga City, for harassing him for “commission” (bribes) to release payments for road works undertaken by him.
“We didn’t know our own people would do this to us,” Patil had told this reporter, days before he took the extreme step.
‘Can’t mix business & Hindutva’
The popularity of Modi’s Hindutva push finds resonance even in areas bordering the three coastal districts. Case in point is Shivamogga district, where a key contest is playing out in the Shikaripura seat.
About 175 km east of Karkala, a man with a hard hat waves a red flag to divert traffic onto a single lane as three men brave the scorching sun to lay asphalt on the Shikaripura main highway.
Exiting this picture-perfect stretch of road in the direction of any of the villages running along the side, and one finds that the postcard-like scenery is replaced with heaps of mud, a maze of puddles, slush and open drains.
B.Y. Vijayendra, the BJP candidate from Shikaripura, is campaigning in Bhadrapura village, where he is seeking votes for his electoral debut in the name of his father and former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa, his brother B.Y. Raghavendra (Shivamogga MP) and development work undertaken by PM Modi’s ‘double-engine government’.
The villagers listen to Vijayendra’s speech on inclusivity and development, while standing on crater-prone roads, or perilously close to open drains.
“We have great regard for Yediyurappa, but the workers of his party have become a headache,” said Shankarappa, a 60-year-old tea-seller in Shikaripura.
Four-time CM Yediyurappa was elected a record eight times from Shikaripura, but as BSY occupied bigger roles, his interaction with constituents was outsourced to party workers and misused for individual gains, alleged Shankarappa.
Political affiliations aside, voters here say they have other concerns that need to be addressed.
“Price of petrol, edible oil and the general cost of living has gone up several fold and it has become hard for us to manage,” Mohammed Arif (32), an advocate in Shivamogga city, told ThePrint.
Rangaraj B.R., a community health officer from Sringeri in neighbouring Chikmagalur, said: “Our village has no roads nor any power supply. The BJP keeps promising to rectify it but is now facing stiff resistance.”
Most locals have high regard for Modi but not the local BJP leadership, which results in a conflict between core ideology and want of development.
“The number of Bandhs last year hit us hard. This was a problem for most daily wage labourers and street vendors,” said Ubaiduallah, 37, a cloth merchant in Shivamogga City.
The intermittent curfews imposed in February last year after the murder of Bajrang Dal worker Harsha Jingade came as a double whammy for small businesses that were yet to recover fully from Covid-induced lockdowns. Adding to this is pressure from pro-Hindutva groups not to conduct any business with Muslims.
“I have customers from all communities. I am a BJP worker but cannot choose customers based on my ideology,” said Narayan N.S., a food-cart vendor at Gopi Circle in Shivamogga City.
While Shivamogga has the distinction of having given Karnataka four chief ministers — Kadidal Manjappa, J.H. Patel, S. Bangarappa and Yediyurappa — locals here believe rampant corruption and communal tension have given the district, and by extension them, a bad name.
Karnataka recorded at least 107 communal incidents between 2020 and 2023, according to a written response submitted in the state legislative council by the home minister on 13 February this year. Of these, 72 incidents were reported from just five districts (Shivamogga, Davanagere, Uttara Kannada, Kodagu, Dakshina Kannada), where Hindutva has been the BJP’s main poll plank. Union minister Shobha Karandlaje, C.T. Ravi, Prathap Simha and Anantkumar Hegde are some of the BJP’s prominent faces in these parts.
Phaniraj K., an Udupi-based activist and co-author of Komuvadada Karala Mukhagalu (The Dark Faces of Communalism), a book documenting narratives on communalism in Karnataka, told ThePrint, “Here (coastal districts), the fight is not between the BJP and the Congress. The fight is between Congress and Hindutva.
“Whatever the BJP’s performance in the last five years, it is just washed off by the power of Hindutva. And people have given into this as well.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)