One of the major issues on voters’ minds and being played into by parties to fight the 2023 state elections is corruption. The term of the current BJP government in the state has been marred by a slew of large-scale corruption allegations. In July 2021, the president of the Karnataka State Contractors’ Association wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating there was ongoing large-scale corruption in the rewarding of government civil contracts in the state, with officials in the BJP government often asking 40 per cent in commission for the awarding of such contracts. A contractor, Santhosh Patil, who accused former cabinet minister K. S. Eshwarappa of harassing him for commissions also committed suicide at Shambhavi Hotel in Udupi in April last year. In addition to this, two associations representing 13,000 schools in the state, wrote to the Prime Minister informing him of the rampant corruption in the education ministry, and urging him to take action. Even during campaigning, Karnataka Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar is facing police action for distributing cash notes during a campaign drive. The Lokayukta also seized over Rs 8 crore of unaccounted cash from the residence and office of BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa’s son. Virupakshappa was also serving as the chairman of the Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd (KS&DL).
Both the BJP and INC are flinging various corruption allegations at each other, aiming to turn the narrative in their favour. At the party’s ‘Vijay Sankalp Yatra’ in Sandur last month, Home Minister and BJP stalwart Amit Shah said the BJP will make the state “corruption-free” if they are voted to power. The party continues to push against the Congress’s anti-corruption narrative by bringing up fresh allegations against the party while also continuing to project the double-engine Modi-Yediyurappa combo and the pro-development plank of the party. The Congress has centred a major portion of its campaign around the corruption allegations against the BJP, and this issue also seems to be on voters’ minds, with an opinion poll revealing that 57 per cent of the voters are unsatisfied with the current government.
Political analysts state that another major ploy being used by the BJP ahead of the assembly polls is the rampant communal issues in the state. The party is trying to divide people and polarise votes, as compared to the INC, which is trying to use this to show how the party has and will continue to ignore governance issues of the state. Another major issue is that of reservation, especially in light of the government’s decision to scrap the four per cent reservation for Muslims under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota and distribute it equally among the dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities. The introduction of internal reservation for various Dalit communities under the Scheduled Caste (SC) category has also been brought up by parties on the campaign trail. All three parties are also attacking each other on their poll promises, as the BJP has alleged the Congress does not keep the promises it makes to the voters, while the Congress is likely to attack the issue of unemployment and inflation rampant in the state. The INC, which currently only has absolute rule over three states in India (the party is a coalition member in other state governments) is giving tough competition to the BJP in the state, as winning the state is very important for the party for its political stability, especially on the road to next year’s national elections. For the same reason, the BJP is also fighting tooth and nail to retain power in one of the most economically powerful states in the country.