Dharwad report: BJP struggles to hold fort

The Congress government in the state is sparing no efforts to regain its hold in Mumbai-Karnataka which was its bastion till 1996. In 2009, the BJP had swept the polls in the region by winning Dharwad, Haveri, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Belgaum and Chikkodi Lok Sabha seats. All these seats were held by the Congress till 1996.

The BJP first had the taste of victory in the Mumbai-Karnataka area in 1996, thanks to the Vajpayee wave. It went on to retain the seats in subsequent elections too.

Now, both the BJP and Congress have fielded their old warhorses in Bijapur (Ramesh Jigajinagi vs Prakash Rathod), Haveri (Shivakumar Udasi vs Salim Ahmed) and Chikkodi (Ramesh Katti vs Prakash Hukkeri) while the Congress has changed its nominees in Belgaum (Laxmi Hebbalkar),

Bagalkot (Ajaykumar Sarnayak) and Dharwad (Vinay Kulkarni) in a bid to wean away voters from the dominant Lingayat/Reddy communities.

Karnataka sugar minister Prakash Hukkeri and Dharwad MLA Vinay Kulkarni were unwilling to contest as they wanted to be in the legislative assembly in the state. But the party, unable to find a suitable candidate to face the dominant BJP nominees, forced the duo into the fray.

The Maharastra Ekika-ran Samiti in Belgaum had earlier announced its support to the Congress candidate, but backtracked later. It has now announced it would remain neutral and has called upon its supporters to vote according to their conscience. This is seen as a setback to Laxmi Hebbalkar who was confident of entering Parliament.

The BJP is harping more on the Modi factor rather than its policies and programmes.

In Belgaum, Chikkodi, Bijapur, Bagalkot and Haveri it is banking more on Modi’s charisma, thus trying to make up for the non-performance of its sitting MPs. BJP state president Prahlad Joshi in Dharwad LS is the only sitting BJP who can claim to have done some development works taking advantage of the party’s rule in the state.

On the contrary, the Congress is using all possible means to wean away the voters. Caste has been its trump card in Dharwad, Haveri and Bagalkot districts while its strategy for Belgaum was to field a woman belonging to the dominant Lingayat community. Congress’ campaign has been focused on BJP government’s “misdeeds” in the state and it is not speaking much of its “achievements” while in power at the Centre for last 10 years.

In Uttara Kannada district sitting BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde is facing novice Prashant Deshpande, son of higher education minister R V Deshpande.

Janata Dal (S) seems to have decided not to take the election seriously in Mumbai-Karnataka as it has either fielded light weights or has allowed its candidates to retire from the fray. JD(S) nominee Naseer Bagwan in Belgaum has not been seen anywhere since filing the nomination papers, while in Uttara Kannada JD(S) candidate Shivanand Nayak has openly announced his support for the BJP.

However, intra-party feud could have its impact on both Congress and BJP. AAP, SUCI, Sri Ram Sena candidates in the fray are yet to make an impact and their contest appears to be more symbolic than serious as admitted by AAP national executive member Yogendra Yadav.