Chitradurga/Ramanagar/Tumkur/Mandya (Karnataka): “I can travel in a bus and go to my college without worrying about expenses now. The free bus ticket basically is a ticket for my future. This is what Siddaramaiah gave us,” said 18-year-old Padmini, a resident of Vanivilaspura village in Hiriyur taluk, Chitradurga constituency. A first-time voter, Padmini, made her preference clear. She wants to vote for the Congress party in the Lok Sabha polls.
“How can we vote for anyone else? The Congress party works for the poor. The guarantees benefit the poor. Don’t the rich and the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) understand our plight? What has (Narendra) Modi given us?” Padmini asked.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Padmini was referring to the five poll promises or guarantees which were mentioned in the Congress manifesto prior to the 2023 assembly elections. Within a few months of coming to power, the Siddaramaiah government launched several initiatives like the Shakti Scheme — which allows women domiciled in Karnataka to travel for free on non-premium public buses plying within the state. The Congress party is banking on the popularity of chief minister Siddaramiah and deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar and the five guarantees to sway the electorates, especially women.
“Who is giving food to us? Congress. Who is giving us some money for survival? Congress. We will obviously vote for the party which is putting food on our plate. Congress is good for our local work. Modi is on TV only and he might also be doing good work. But for us, Congress is only good,” said H. Sudha, 38, a resident of Vanivilaspura village.
She added: “It’s good that the money is given to womenfolk because if they (state government) would have given it to men then they would just spend it on liquor and create a nuisance. We use it for our family’s needs.”
Chitradurga is a reserved constituency. Former deputy minister Govind Karjol is contesting on a BJP ticket, replacing Union minister and incumbent MP A. Narayanaswamy who was not renominated due to anti-incumbency. The Congress nominee is former MP B.N. Chandrappa.
Not everyone in Karnataka, however, agrees with Padmini and Sudha.
Watch: Exclusive | ‘Modi Shouldn’t Speak Against Minorities’: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah
The Modi factor
In the neighbouring Tumkur constituency, Pallaiah, aged 70, underlined that for the progress of the nation, Modi should be back in power at the Centre. When asked what work of the prime minister impressed him the most, the 70 year old took a long pause before responding, “Everything.” While answering the same question, H.R. Somsekhar, 60, said, “Ram Temple, Article 370, he has done so much. He has a good image and it is important for our nation’s development.”
Both the residents of Hirehalli village in Tumkur taluk claimed that they had voted for the BJP in the previous two general elections and they will continue to vote for the saffron party this time as well. The BJP has replaced sitting MP G.S. Basavaraj with former state minister V. Somanna against Congress nominee S.P. Muddahanumegowda. In the 2019 general elections, H.D. Deve Gowda was the opposition candidate as the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) were in an alliance. Muddahanumegowda had represented the Tumkur seat in 2014, while the BJP candidate had contested and lost against chief minister Siddaramaiah in the last assembly polls.
Congress Bengaluru Rural MP D.K. Suresh with local JD(S) and BJP workers who have recently joined the Congress party in Chellur village in Harohalli taluk in Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency. Photo: Tamanna Naseer
The JD(S)’s followers
For loyal JD(S) supporters, the angst against the party high command for aligning with the BJP is visible in many rural areas of the state, despite the sincere efforts and emotional appeals of the JD(S) leadership – H.D. Deve Gowda and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy. “All my life I have voted for the JD(S). I have supported Deve Gowda. I have been a Janata Dal supporter since the ’80s. But this time, I will vote for the Congress party. Deve Gowda shouldn’t have done this (alliance). Modi has done no work. Everything is expensive, there’s no money, no work,” said Jayram, 66, a farmer from Hirehalli village.
Also read: Karnataka: Caste in Politics Dominates But the Mosaic May be Changing
Even in the Mandya seat from which Kumaraswamy is contesting against Congress’s Venkataramane Gowda (Star Chandru), a section of the followers of the JD(S) leader are shifting towards the Congress partly because of the impactful door-to-door campaign of the Congress nominee, approval of Siddaramaiah government’s performance and alleged neglect of the constituency by Kumaraswamy in the run up to the elections.
“Even though Kumaraswamy is contesting from Mandya, he is busy campaigning for the BJP candidates in other districts and constituencies. If we are not able to see him now, how will we manage to find him if any need arises in case he gets elected from here,” said Kiran S., 62, resident of Haladasanahalli village in Malavalli taluk, Mandya district.
A huge crowd gathered at the rally of JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda in Bengaluru Rural constituency. Photo: Special arrangement
Ground-level politics
The electorate more or less seems to have made up their minds on whom to vote for.
Broadly, there are four sets of voters in the rural parts of southern Karnataka — fans of the prime minister who are continuing to back the BJP, Congress supporters who feel indebted to the party due to the guarantees, the traditional JD(S) voters who are miffed with their party leadership for joining hands with the BJP and have shifted towards the Congress party, and a section of the JD(S) voters who have made up their mind to support the BJP.
The influence of caste and hyper-local leadership is also very evidently noticeable in some pockets in southern Karnataka.
“I don’t know which party I will vote for. I’m waiting for my son and our village people to indicate which party we should support. In MLA (assembly elections) I voted for the Congress. This time I’ll do what others in my village suggest,” said 60-something Nagamma, a resident of Aralalasandra village in Chanapatna taluk in Bengaluru Rural constituency.
Interestingly, some BJP workers at the grassroots level in Tumkur and Chitradurga pointed out that even women members in their own families didn’t listen to their suggestion to vote for the BJP during the assembly polls last year in the hope of getting the Rs 2,000 monthly financial assistance that was mentioned in the Congress manifesto — the Gruha Lakshmi scheme. They said that the situation is unlikely to be repeated as everyone will vote “only for Modi” during general elections.
“In our village, we only have Modi voters in MP elections. In last year’s MLA elections, even after we asked our mothers and sisters to vote for BJP, they did the opposite for free schemes. This time it won’t happen. Now, everyone is getting the money given by the state government, so they will vote for BJP, it’s only Modi here,” said BJP worker Ganesh H. from Madakaripura village in Chitradurga.
Congress nominees refute the claim that there’s any Modi wave in this election. Calling the Modi wave “just a lie like the BJP’s manifesto”, Congress’s Chamarajanagar candidate Sunil Bose said, “There is more support for the Congress party in Chamarajanagar than Prime Minister Modi. We delivered as promised. People themselves come forward and say this. Not only in Chamarajanagar, this time the entire county will prove that the Modi wave is just a lie, like BJP’s manifesto.”
Congress’s Chamarajanagar nominee Sunil Bose greeting the women voters in his constituency. The Congress party is banking on the five guarantees (poll promises delivered post 2023 assembly win) to sway the electorates, especially women. Photo: Special arrangement
Karnataka votes during the second and third phase of the Lok Sabha polls on Friday, April 26 and Tuesday, May 7. Out of the 14 constituencies going to polls on Friday, the BJP is contesting in 11 seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the saffron party was unable to win only Bengaluru Rural and managed to win the other ten — Udupi-Chikmagulur, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Bengaluru North, Bangaluru Central, Bangaluru South and Chikkaballapur. The party has renominated only Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and Bengaluru Central MP P.C. Mohan, and has fielded new candidates in the rest of the eight seats.
Also read: Prestige Battles In Karnataka: How This Southern State Might Dent BJP’s Prospects
In seats like Tumkur, Chitradurga and Bengaluru North, the BJP has fielded senior leaders who aren’t local faces – former minister V. Somanna, former deputy minister Karjol and former Union minister Shobha Karandlaje, respectively. Some rural voters underlined that they don’t know their candidates but BJP leaders and workers dismissed this factor. “It doesn’t matter who is contesting. People who vote for BJP vote only for Modi and not the candidate. The only thing that matters to a large extent is caste, a majority of the voters support a candidate who belongs to their caste only,” said Chandrashekhariah, a BJP booth-level karyakarta (worker) in Nandihalli village, Tumkur.
For the Congress party, mobilisation of resources cropped up as a major issue for the candidates contesting in a few constituencies in the first round of polls in the state. What worked in the party’s favour to an extent is the fact that a majority of the assembly constituencies under many of the Lok Sabha seats had representatives from the grand old party. For instance, out of the ten assembly segments in the Mandya Lok Sabha seat, eight are represented by the Congress party.
As southern Karnataka and parts of north Karnataka and the coastal belt go to vote tomorrow, the BJP is hoping that Modi’s popularity will overcome any anti-incumbency and anger against the local leadership. Congress has cast its net wide to all social sections, broadening its base, and is campaigning on important material factors, close to voter’s lives. The BJP’s time-tested formula of hyper-nationalism faces severe competition this time.
