Bengaluru: The BJP, which released the names of 189 candidates for the coming Karnataka assembly elections Tuesday, has hailed the list — including 52 “new faces” — as a “game-changer” with focus on “next-gen” leaders. But that hasn’t been enough to drown out the voices of protest from within.
Denied a ticket, former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi openly cried on stage at a public event in Chikodi, Belagavi, Tuesday evening, asking his constituents what his future course of action should be. On Wednesday, the BJP MLC — a former three-time MLA from Athani — announced his decision to resign from the party.
Former chief minister Jagadish Shettar, said to have been asked by the BJP to stay out of the fray, has said the party “did not give him respect”. Shettar is scheduled to meet central leaders and seek a ticket, sources close to him told ThePrint.
There have also been protests reported in Shivamogga, Ramdurg and several other constituencies where the sitting MLAs have been left out of the list, fuelling an internal rift and increasing the chances of leaders either joining another party, contesting as rebels, or working against the interests of the BJP.
Moreover, most of the leaders who helped topple the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-Congress coalition government in 2019 have been retained. By doing so, analysts say, the party is probably sending out a message that one will be protected after defection.
“They are taking care of the interests of all those who switched sides. That might be more of a message for after the elections,” Narendar Pani, Bengaluru-based political analyst and a faculty member at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), said to ThePrint.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has made light of the controversy, saying the party has spoken to the leaders left out.
“I have spoken to Laxman Savadi and asked him not to react in a harsh manner. I am confident… Savadi and BJP have an old relationship. We are aware that he is upset over not getting a ticket,” he told reporters in Bengaluru Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday night, he had said that the party has “already spoken to all those who will be replaced, explained why this decision was taken and the opportunities they will get in the future”. “We are a disciplined national party, and we can fulfil all of these,” he added.
He said senior leaders built the BJP in Karnataka, and the party in return had helped them grow, which is a “very strong relationship”. He added that he foresees no major problem.
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‘New faces’
Karnataka goes to the polls on 10 May and counting will be held three days later. The party is banking heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is likely to undertake several visits to Karnataka as the polls inch closer.
The Prime Minister has also taken it upon himself to ensure the BJP’s win. He is deciding candidates, showcasing the central government’s achievements in the state, and “sidelining all state leaders”, party sources said to ThePrint.
The BJP has been in power for nine years over different terms in the state but has never managed to secure a majority on its own. In 2008, it won 110 out of the 224 seats and, in 2018, 104 seats, forcing it to depend upon turncoats.
“If the BJP wins these elections, they will project it as Modi’s victory, and a run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” said Pani.
Among those denied a ticket is six-term minister S. Angara (constituency Suliya). His cabinet colleague Anand Singh (Vijayanagara) has been replaced by his son, Siddharth. The other sitting MLAs who were replaced include Sanjeev Matandoor (Puttur), K. Raghupati Bhat (Udupi), Lalaji R. Mendon (Kaup), Mahadevappa Yadawad (Ramdurg), Anil Benake (Belagavi North), Ramappa Lamani (Shirahatti), and Gulihatti D. Shekar (Hosadurga).
“The list seems to be a ‘least resistance’ list,” said Sandeep Shastri, analyst and psephologist. “The 10 sitting MLAs not renominated from the same seats are largely lightweights and have been replaced to deal with anti-incumbency.
The BJP has brought in a few new faces in the coastal belt, especially in the communally sensitive district of Dakshina Kannada, which is among its strongholds. Bhagirathi Murulya replaces Angara in Suliya, while Asha Thimappa Gowda replaces Sanjeev Mattandoor in Puttur. Satish Kumpala has replaced Santosh Kumar Rai, who lost to U.T. Khader of the Congress in 2018.
In 2018, the BJP won 16 of the 19 seats in the three coastal districts — Dakshina Kannada (7 out of 8 seats), Uttara Kannada (4 out of 6), and Udupi (all 5 seats). The Congress won the remaining three seats but one legislator later moved to the BJP, leaving the party with 17 seats in the three districts.
Analysts say although the BJP is projecting its list as one involving “risks”, it has more to do with “restraint”.
The decision to field housing minister V. Somanna, a Lingayat, and revenue minister R. Ashoka, a Vokkaliga, against heavyweights Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar, respectively, is only with the intent to keep the Congress stalwarts more invested in their own constituencies, thus restricting their movement to other places, said A. Narayana, political analyst and faculty at the Azim Premji University.
Ashoka and Somanna are also contesting from their strongholds of Padmanabhanagar and Chamarajanagar.
“If Ashoka were to contest only from Kanakapura, I would call it anti-risk aversion behaviour and that the BJP is proving a point. Similarly, with Somanna. They know that they (Somanna and Ashoka) might lose (from Varuna and Kanakapura, respectively), therefore, they want a safer seat. That means these seats (for the two BJP ministers) is only to trouble the opponent,” he said to ThePrint.
‘Defection-friendly’
The BJP has also yielded to the demands of turncoats who helped it form a government in 2019 by allegedly engineering defections and toppling the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led government.
Ramesh Jarkiholi, the strongman from Gokak in Belagavi, who was forced to step down as cabinet minister after the alleged ‘sex-for-job’ scandal in 2021, has also allegedly managed to get his way in securing a ticket for Mahesh Kumathalli, a Congress turncoat, in Athani.
Media reports had earlier quoted him as saying he will not contest elections if Kumathalli is not given a ticket.
The BJP picked Kumathalli over Laxman Savadi, who is believed to have been one of the catalysts of the defection drama and was even made a deputy chief minister under Yediyurappa.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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