Stakes are high for the BJP and higher still for the Congress as people vote to elect a new government in Karnataka on Wednesday following an intense and often bitter campaign that saw the ‘entry’ of Lord Hanuman in the last leg of the electoral battle fought as much on issues of governance as on ideology.
If the Congress appeared to take the fight to the rival by raising the pitch over alleged corruption under the BJP government headed first by B S Yediyurappa and then by Basavaraj Bommai with its high decibel “40 per cent sarkara” plank, the incumbent rode the “double engine” narrative to seek another term to push Karnataka higher up the development chart. The opposition party has also offered five guarantees, a host of welfare measures and sops, and promised to raise the total reservation from the existing 50 per cent to 75 per cent, a nod to its recent turn to the social justice plank wielded so far by regional parties.
However, it is its two other manifesto promises – tough action including a ban on organisations like Bajrang Dal and already-proscribed radical Islamic body PFI, and restoring the 4 per cent quota for Muslims – that have been seized by the BJP to ramp up its Hindutva plank in the hope of consolidating votes.
After the Congress manifesto release on May 2, the BJP brought both issues to the centre stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself charging the opposition party with seeking to “lock up” Lord Hanuman and those who chant slogans to his glory after earlier “locking up” Lord Ram.
As the slogan “Bajrang Bali ki Jai” became ubiquitous in Modi’s rallies, other top BJP leaders launched an all-out attack on the Congress, accusing it of “politics of appeasement”.
Senior BJP leader B L Santhosh noted during the campaign that it is the Congress that introduced the issue and his party will surely raise it.
Congress leaders, however, believe that the BJP’s war cry will not have much resonance in a state where Hindutva has not paid much electoral dividends outside the coastal region.
The view within the party is that its promise of action against Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of RSS-affiliated Vishwa Hindu Parishad, will help it win over those sections of Muslims who are favourably inclined to Janata Dal (Secular), which has maintained a robust presence in Old Mysuru region under the stewardship of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.