Alliance takes a toll on Cong, BJP set to be the beneficiary

MANDYA: Sitting aloof amidst a crowd in

Yethakahalli

, Mandya district, during a break in campaigning for Siddaramaiah, the party’s candidate for the Lok Sabha bypoll, state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa chomped on a banana while staring into the middle distance. Perhaps, he was contemplating the next item on his agenda.

Asked how the campaign was going and whether the BJP stands a chance of recording an upset, Yeddyurappa said: “We are certain to win Shivamogga and Ballari, but we will give a tough fight in Mandya.”


For over six decades, politics in the rice and sugar bowl of the state has been a sort of turf war between the Congress and JD(S). Voters’ loyalties have swung only between these two parties. However, for the first time, the pre-poll alliance between the archrivals has opened the door for the BJP to make inroads in the Vokkaliga heartland.

State intelligence reports suggest the BJP is set to gain a foothold in Mandya even if its candidate is defeated. Reports say the swing may be comparable to the 1994 elections when the Ayodhya and Ram Janma Bhoomi issues swung a lot of votes for the saffron outfit.

However, Yeddyurappa’s statement that the BJP stands more than a chance is far removed from facts on the ground, with every village and town in the constituency reaffirming its loyalty to the JD(S) and the tallest Vokkaliga leader in the state, H D Deve Gowda. However, some are considering the BJP as an alternative, thanks to the void left by the Congress.

In Thatahalli, 82-year-old Chinne Gowda, puffing on a beedi outside his home, reflected on loyalty to the JD(S). “It does not matter who the candidate is, we are going to vote for Dala (colloquial name for JDS),” he said. “Previously, we had voted for Congress when the JD(S) failed to deliver on its promises. However, considering the stature of Deve Gowda and his ability to deliver on promises, we have always come back.”

However, in Koppa, some 15km away, staunch Congress workers say the decision of the party’s high command to “surrender” the seat to the JD(S), has “undermined” their efforts in the constituency. They say their younger colleagues could shift to the saffron party.

“With local leaders not spelling out clearly whether to work for the JD(S), a lot of Congress sympathisers have openly declared they will vote for the BJP,” said a senior Mandya Congress worker. Local Congress leaders fear their party could be wiped out in Mandya. They say it is possible their substantial vote base could be handed on a platter to the JD(S).

With the JD(S) sweeping Mandya district in the assembly polls earlier this year — the party won all eight segments by margins ranging between 30,000 and 50,000 —Congress leaders are peeved with the alliance that has been “forced” on them by its high command.

Congress losing candidates and former JD(S) MLAs Ramesh Babu Bandisiddegowda and N Cheluvarayaswamy are not campaigning as no invitation was extended to them. Their supporters have only been holding indoor meetings.

Making it even easier for the BJP to expand its voter base is the choice of L R Shivarame Gowda as the alliance candidate. “The alliance’s choice of candidate is not good and it will help us,” said Yeddyurappa, reflecting on the popular thought in Mandya that Shivarame Gowda’s name had figured in the alleged murder of a journalist. The wave of discontent has been so strong that chief minister H D Kumaraswamy has been forced to defend Shivarame Gowda at every election rally.

“Every media house carried a report on the 22-yearold case and of Shivarame Gowda being a murder accused,” said Kumaraswamy at a rally in Maddur. “However, he has been acquitted by the judiciary. If the disgruntlement is simply because he was jailed, then let us remind the people that even Yeddyurappa and other BJP leaders have also gone to jail.”

The murdered journalist was from the Kuruba community which has more than two lakh voters in the constituency. The BJP is expecting to swing these voters to their fold.