Newsmaker: R Ashoka

A knack for winning elections

Vokkaliga strongman R Ashoka may emerge as a trump card for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the next assembly elections if you go by the party's triumph in the Bengaluru civil polls this week.

In the 100 seats that BJP has won in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council - a victory that surprised many party leaders - 30 winning candidates were chosen by Ashoka, the former deputy chief minister of Karnataka. A local man, Ashoka has won assembly elections in south Bengaluru since 1997, a stronghold he continues to nurture.

BJP's tally in this week's council election is still lower than the 113 it won in 2010 - that victory too was attributed to Ashoka's strategy. The verdict is being seen as evidence of BJP's growing reach in the south.

BJP formed its first government in the south when voters, seeking a clean government, elected its Lingayat strongman, B S Yeddyurappa, as the chief minister and rejected H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular).

Ashoka was home minister in the Yeddyurappa government when the Lingayat leader had to quit on corruption charges. He held the same post when Sadananda Gowda became the chief minister.

In the next BJP setup led by Jagadish Shettar, Ashoka was elevated to deputy chief minister, with additional portfolios of home and transport.

But the party lost the elections in 2013 to Siddaramaiah, the backward class leader who led Congress to a comfortable victory.

During last year's parliamentary elections, Ashoka had opposed the candidature of Sadananda Gowda from Bengaluru North, but had to retreat after stern warnings from Delhi. But he worked for Ananth Kumar, who was facing anti-incumbency in Bengaluru South, to defeat Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, helping BJP get the city's three seats during the Modi wave.

Last year's victory for BJP in the parliamentary polls gave Ashoka the confidence to become ambitious. It also helps that Sadananda Gowda is in the Union cabinet and Yeddyurappa is in the docks fighting the corruption charges.

In the BBMP elections, Ashoka was able to channel the anger of hundreds of residents in the city outskirts, especially those who had lost homes in a drive led by the Congress government against illegal encroachment. Most of the encroachment was in wards that BJP controlled in the previous council, which has been accused of being the most corrupt in BBMP's history. What helped was the reluctance of Congress to hold the elections due to the city's governance challenges and its insistence on dividing the city into three zones for better administration. Congress, on the back foot after a Supreme Court directive to hold elections, did its best with Siddaramaiah leading the campaign. Despite 13 legislators including five ministers, the Congress could not communicate enough that BJP made a mess of the BBMP council.

For Ashoka, who doesn't hide his ambitions to become the chief minister one day and often calls himself "Samrat Ashoka", the governance of Bengaluru could be the stepping stone to realise his long-cherished dream. This time around, the party will face more scrutiny, not just from the residents but also from the party's bosses in New Delhi.