Shimoga: Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader B.S. Yeddyurappa is not in the Lok Sabha sweepstakes this time but is fighting, perhaps, the toughest election of his life.
The 77-year-old former chief minister has to ensure his son B.Y. Raghavendra retains the Shimoga seat, or risk his political future.
Meanwhile, Raghavendra’s opponent Madhu Bangarappa of the Janata Dal (Secular), late chief minister S. Bangarappa’s son, is making a determined bid to get the seat back into the fold of the backward classes with the help of the Congress.
Going gets tough for Yeddyurappa
The last 11 months have not been good for Karnataka BJP president Yeddyurappa, also known as BSY, another aging leader fighting for relevance in a party banking on young blood.
The BJP lost the May 2018 assembly election on his watch, he was purportedly caught on tape trying to bribe opposition MLAs to defect to the party, and a leaked diary allegedly noted bribes Yeddyurappa paid to BJP bigwigs.
That was not all. His comment that the Balakot air strike would help the BJP win 22 of Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha seats gave a handle to the opposition to attack the party for allegedly using the Indian Air Force (IAF) operation for political gains.
A loss in Shimoga, which the father-son duo has held for a decade now, will weaken Yeddyurappa considerably, especially when the BJP brass is looking at a younger set of leaders to helm the party in Karnataka.
After BSY resigned from the seat during his failed bid last year to return as chief minister, Raghavendra won Shimoga in the November 2018 by-election, but by a not-too-impressive margin of 52,000 votes — a far cry from the runaway victory of his father, by 3.6 lakh votes, in 2014.
His opponent was again Bangarappa, who gave Raghavendra a run for his money despite filing his nomination on the last day.
Also read: Yeddyurappa diaries: Time for Supreme Court to clearly note what constitutes evidence
BJP’s high-visibility campaign
In the face of a determined fight by Bangarappa, Yeddyurappa is leaving no stone unturned to ensure Raghavendra wins.
The high-visibility campaign for the incumbent received a shot in the arm Saturday as BJP chief Amit Shah led a massive roadshow in Bhadravati, the lone assembly segment of the Lok Sabha constituency where the Congress won in 2018.
However, Shah spoke no more than three-four sentences, and did not refer to the achievements of either Yeddyurappa or Raghavendra, bringing the frosty relations between the state and national BJP presidents to the fore. Yeddyurappa was conspicuous by his absence.
It is not just a matter of his son’s success. Yeddyurappa also faces the responsibility of retaining the 17 Karnataka seats the BJP won in 2014.
Yeddyurappa’s contribution to Shimoga is quite evident, especially in the district headquarters, but there are challenges aplenty.
While there is a measure of anti-incumbency in the constituency, Raghavendra is yet to emerge as a powerful leader in his own right despite making it to the Lok Sabha twice and the assembly once.
His third Lok Sabha nomination has people joking that the BJP is not free of dynasty politics either.
The caste question
Yeddyurappa is one of the tallest leaders of the politically-powerful Lingayats. Next to the Idigas, it is the Lingayats who have the biggest numbers in Shimoga, and the BJP is confident of their support.
Early Friday morning, Yeddyurappa and family offered prayers at the annual Hucharayaswamy temple fair in Shikaripura.
Very close to the temple is a mosque, and Hindu and Muslim vendors sit next to each other selling flowers and coconuts to be offered by worshippers to the deity.
“There is no communal conflict here. The BJP has done a lot for the Muslims as well,” said Ramanna, who owns a local grocery store.
Yet he is sceptical about Muslims voting for the BJP, and says the party will not win with a big majority.
Manjunath, a former panchayat member in Ripponpet, which falls within Shimoga limits, claims Muslims are appreciative of the Ayushman Bharat healthcare scheme introduced by the Modi government and expects some support for the BJP from them.
Disturbing the status quo
Raghavendra’s campaign is clearly more visible in the constituency than Bangarappa’s. But as has been the trend elsewhere, he, too, has been relying on the achievements of the Narendra Modi government to prop up his candidature.
“This is not a by-election like last time,” he is heard saying at village gatherings. “The general elections are fought on national issues, and caste is not a consideration.”
That is not entirely true, though. Backward castes, who are higher in number than the Lingayats, want to disturb the status quo, a sentiment that the JD (S)-Congress has been quick to identify.
“This time we are seeing a serious attempt by the backward castes to assert their authority,” JD(S) Karnataka president H. Vishwanath told ThePrint.
He said the alliance’s focus has been on mobilising microscopic communities like the Madiwalas, Uppars and Lambanis, in addition to the traditional Congress-JD(S) core base of Idigas, who constitute the biggest chunk of voters in Shimoga, besides Muslims and Dalits.
That Bangarappa is an Idiga will no doubt help the alliance, but the question is to what extent.
Bangarappa’s elder brother Kumar is a BJP MLA from the Soraba assembly segment and enjoys good support among the Idigas. The feuding brothers both claim to represent the legacy of their late father, who is still revered in the district.
Vishwanath said the JD(S) was confident of a win here. Unlike seats in the Old Mysuru region, like Mandya and Mysuru, there is not much friction between the Congress and the JD(S), except in Bhadravati.
However, Congress troubleshooter D.K. Shivakumar succeeded in bringing Congress MLA B.K. Sangameshwara and Appaji Gowda of the JD(S) together. With this, the alliance expects the transfer of votes between the two parties to be smoother. Bhadravati will play a decisive role in deciding the result.
In the 2018 by-election, the JD(S)-Congress alliance secured an 11,000-vote lead in the assembly segment for the first time in 15 years. The BJP has never won the assembly seat, but has had leads in the 2004, 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Shah’s road show in this industrial town, home to the Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant and Mysore Paper Mills, which have both fallen on bad days, and the last-minute patch-up between the warring local leaders is, therefore, significant.
On Saturday, Bangarappa’s campaign got a huge boost, with former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H.D. Deve Gowda and Shivakumar addressing a workers’ meeting at Umblebylu, on the fringes of the Bhadra Tiger Reserver near Bhadravati.
Gyanendra, a JD(S) worker, summed up the consequent enthusiasm among cadres: “The reconciliation efforts have helped improve our chances,” he said after the meeting.
Deep in the hinterland
While the development in urban Shimoga is visible, issues concerning farmers as well as forest dwellers remain neglected — including the deaths from monkey fever, which reportedly claimed its highest toll this season, all in Shimoga.
Bangarappa has promised he will fight for amendments to the Forest Rights Act to protect the rights of forest dwellers to the land where they live.
He has also been telling voters that the JD(S)-Congress government has earmarked funds for four irrigation projects that will benefit the arid parts of Shimoga, Shikaripura and Sorab taluks.
That he has secured 6,000 title deeds for those cultivating ‘Bagair Hukum’ or government lands will add weight to these promises. In fact, the farmers’ association, Raitha Sangha, has pledged its support to him.
The BJP is on the backfoot on such issues. It has been faulted for lack of irrigation in some parts of the constituency, and has also been facing heat for its failure to stall the implementation of the Kasturirangan Committee report on preserving the ecology of the Western Ghats. Close to 500 villages will have to be vacated if the report is implemented.
Raghavendra chooses to highlight the introduction of a Jan Shatabdi train from Bengaluru to Shimoga, upgradation of highways, and grants under the Smart City project instead.
Addressing voters at Kappanahalli and Amatekoppa villages in Shikaripura taluk Friday, Yeddyurappa thundered, “What is the contribution of the opposition? It is nil … We have changed the face of this constituency with our development projects.”
Shimoga votes in the third phase of the Lok Sabha election Tuesday.
Also read: BJP Karnataka chief B.S. Yeddyurappa rubbishes allegations of bribe