Bengaluru’s date with BJP pre-dates Modi

The apparent Modi wave that put BJP on top of the podium with 25 seats of 28 in Karnataka is the narrative for the state. But so far as the State’s capital is concerned, the saffron party’s dominance precedes the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah era.


Bengaluru’s date with BJP goes back to 1991, when K Venkatagiri Gowda, who wasn’t even a career politician, defeated R Gundu Rao, a sitting MP and a former Karnataka chief minister in Bengaluru South.

From the time the state was rechristened Karnataka in 1977, Bengaluru South has been anti-Congress, backing the Janata Parivar barring a single term of Gundu Rao in 1989.

While Venkatagiri Gowda, an economist, carried the tag of slaying a giant and putting BJP on Bengaluru’s map, party insiders say that he, in fact, was a beneficiary of the party’s growing prominence on the back of the Ram Mandir movement that captured the imagination of the majority Hindu voters in the segment.

L Vasudev Murthy, who managed Gowda’s campaign in the segment home to elite upper class—a mix of Brahmins and Vokkaligas—says: “His selection was spot on. It brought together both Brahmins and the Vokkaligas and ensured victory. Although it was a time Gundu Rao controlled Bengaluru, we had an intuition that we could cause an upset.”

Post 1991, the BJP has only grown in Bengaluru. In the immediate polls after Gowda’s victory, a young

Ananth Kumar

, who had grown from the ranks of a student leader and seen as a quintessential Sangh Parivar man, was given the ticket.

Kumar, who held the seat for six terms until his death last November, also played a

critical role

in the party snatching Bengaluru North—the city had only two segments then—from the Congress in 2004. HT Sangliana, a former police commissioner and now a Congressman defeated another big name, former union minister Jaffer Sharief of the Congress in 2004.

R

Ashoka

, who was Bengaluru city BJP president in 1995, when the party was gaining in strength, said: “There was a plan. We put in concerted effort to organise a support base based on religious and cultural identities, which was done to further the party’s ideology as much as to make us electorally strong. This eventually helped us during elections as Bengaluru’s citizens responded very well.”

By 2009, Bengaluru had three seats with North split into two during the delimitation, which was an opportunity BJP didn’t fail to seize. It has won all three polls in Bengaluru Central, the new constituency formed in 2009, while also retaining Bengaluru North and South over the years.

While the undercurrent of ideology in Bengaluru has helped BJP as the party concedes, a cosmopolitan Bengaluru, India’s tech capital, also has other considerations.

And, Harish Narasappa, co-founder Daksh, a civil society group that does research on governance and election-related aspects, says: “The city has a diverse demography which tends to support national parties when it comes to

Lok Sabha

elections. And, among the national parties, they pick the one that appears stronger, which the BJP has maintained to be since late 1990s.”

Revathy Ashok, CEO, B.PAC, a not-for-profit funding and working with Bengaluru elected representatives attributed the success of BJP to the quality of its candidates, while pointing out that the Congress is often seen changing its candidates, or fielding non-serious ones.

“Also, the modern outlook of BJP and its candidates is another factor that appeal to different communities like the start-ups, sportspersons, aspirational voters and others alike. The other parties don’t have this factor helping them,” she said.

If all these factors play their part in keeping BJP on top, the party and independent observers unanimously also credit Ananth Kumar for the party’s growth. Kumar’s political maneuvering and his ability to reach to people in rival parties not just kept him undefeated, but also aided the party in grow strength to strength in every election.Bengaluru’s date with BJP pre-dates Modi