They have been enemies, they have been friends, then frenemies, and now it is back to square one! As the battle lines are drawn for the by-elections in Karnataka, the results will not have bearing on the B.S. Yediyurappa-led BJP government. However, this election season, the stage is set for a different fight altogether — the Vokkaliga face!
Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and KPPC president D.K. Shivakumar who were instrumental in installing Congress-JDS coalition government in 2018 are at each other’s throat as the political equations have changed and so has the balance which has tilted towards Shivakumar, who now wears the mantle of Pradesh chief.
After taking charge, DKS has been welcoming a steady stream of political leaders from the community to join the Congress party sending a strong signal of Vokkaliga consolidation.
In the last one week, both the Vokkaliga leaders have taken potshots at each other creating flutter in the community. While HDK irked by the momentum being gained by Shivakumar, fired the first salvo calling the latter an opportunist and that “DSK hasn’t been given the contract of Vokkaligas”, Shivakumar didn’t hold back calling “Kumaraswamy a selfish politician who used the community as ladder and later kicking it”.
It is just a by-election and why all the brouhaha? One may ask. The underlying fact about this political manoeuvring, that both the leaders are engaged in, perhaps is with an eye on 2023 assembly where a Yediyurappa would have been handed retirement and this would mean a level playing electoral field for all three parties — BJP, Congress and JD(S). With BSY not in the equation, it becomes all the more important as how the CM aspirants will consolidate their vote base as till now the Lingayat strongman hasn’t hinted as to who will take his legacy forward.
At a staggering 14 pc of state electorate, this dominant farming community, second only to Lingayats, has given seven Chief Ministers to state including Deve Gowda, S.M. Krishna, Kumaraswamy and Sadananda Gowda. In today’s scenario, the community predominant in Old Mysore region and Cauvery delta area will play a key role in propping up the next chief minister even as the BJP is screening for a non-BSY family Lingayat face from north Karnataka.
The by-elections to Rajarajeshwarinagar and Sira are due on 3 November. While RR Nagar is on polls after the High Court lifted stay in a case of fake voters ID, Sira is seeing by-poll after a sitting MLA from JDS died of cardiac arrest. If we take a closer look at the profile of these constituencies, Vokkaligas constitute a majority of the voters setting the stage for showdown between HDK and DKS.