Lok Sabha elections: Foes turn friends, take edge out of election battle in this constituency

BENGALURU: The decision of the Congress and the JD(S) to forge an alliance to defeat the BJP may have made the Lok Sabha elections an interesting prospect in Karnataka, but it has taken the sheen off the electoral battle in Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha segment.
The Vokkaliga-dominated constituency has witnessed some fierce political battles between chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and water resources minister DK Shivakumar in the past, but the two have now come together.
In fact, Shivakumar appears to be more concerned about the victory of Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil from Mandya than his own brother Suresh, who faces BJP’s Ashwath Narayan in a bid to be re-elected from the seat for a third consecutive time.
The bonhomie has percolated to the grassroots too, a feat the coalition partners are struggling to achieve elsewhere in Old Mysuru where the two parties have been fierce rivals.
“It is amazing how both sides buried their animosity. This holds true even for the party workers,” says Ramesh, a hotel owner in Magadi. “Till the last elections, they fought against each other as if there was no tomorrow.”
In the constituency, there is neither election fervour nor street corner rallies. If there is talk about the elections, it is limited to happenings in Mandya or about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The constituency, which has an equal mixture of urban and rural voters, sent Suresh to the Lok Sabha in 2014. He won by a margin of
2.3 lakh votes, touted to be the second highest in the entire country after PM Narendra Modi’s win in Varanasi. While Suresh polled 6.5 lakh votes (44.8%), BJP’s P Muniraju Gowda polled 4.2 lakh
(28.9%) and JD(S) Prabhakar Reddy 3.17 lakh votes (21.8%).
As in 2014, the collective vote share of the Congress and the JD(S) in 2009 and 2013 was 63% and 74% respectively. But the BJP is bullish about its chances this time.
“In politics one plus one does necessarily mean two,” says state BJP functionary AH Anand. “The Congress and JD(S) together might appear strong, but there is an undercurrent in favour of the BJP which cannot be dismissed easily.”
The fact that there are three urban segments — Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Bengaluru South and Anekal — which account for nearly 40% of the electorate gives the BJP hope. “Historically, urban pockets are strongholds of the BJP,” Anand said.