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Karnataka bypolls gives hope for Congress revival in state
The Congress emerged victorious in one of the three bypolls in Karnataka and managed to make significant gains in Belagavi that infuses new hope into a party, which analysts said, appears to nurse the potential to reinvigorate its fledgling strategies and its chances in the 2023 assembly elections
The Congress emerged victorious in one of the three bypolls in Karnataka and managed to make significant gains in Belagavi that infuses new hope into a party, which analysts said, appears to nurse the potential to reinvigorate its fledgling strategies and its chances in the 2023 assembly elections.
Despite the poor outing of the Congress in other state elections, such as West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Kerala among other places, the results in Karnataka paint a picture of hope for a chance at power for the Congress.
DK Shivakumar, the party’s state unit president, said that the results hint that the people were showing their confidence in the party.
With just two years to go for the assembly polls, the Congress has an opportunity to capitalise on the internal bickering within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the growing voices against chief minister BS Yediyurappa, they add.
“If they (Congress) make their candidate choice strategically and carefully, they can fight the BJP,” A Narayana, political analyst and faculty at the Azim Premji University in Bengaluru said.
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Nayarayan adds that Satish Jarkiholi was a strong local face who was not “paradropped” by the high command, and has influence over the district which can help “stop the juggernaut” of the BJP. The BJP is a cadre-based party as opposed to the Congress that depends on mass support. The supporters of the BJP are more likely to vote for the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi than the candidate but the same may not be true for the Congress.
Analysts said that the Congress has gained in Karnataka by decentralising power, leaving more decision-making powers with the local units than with the high command. However, this has led to the creation of local chieftains like Siddharamaiah who refuse to cede control over party affairs to Shivakumar, who is party president in the state, analysts said.
In the case of Belagavi, the party chose Satish Jarkiholi, a legislator known to be politically tactful, despite his well-known differences with Shivakumar, who is known to put the interests of the party over his personal gains. Jarkiholi lost Belagavi by just around 5,200 votes against Mangala Suresh Angadi. In comparison, the Congress candidate in 2019 lost to the late Suresh Angadi of the BJP in 2019 by a margin of nearly 400,000 votes.
Though the BJP has made light of any talk on Congress revival in Karnataka, indicators such as local body elections, run on extremely hyper local issues, point to a potentially contrasting narrative.
The Congress won six out of the 10 urban local body (ULB) elections across several districts in Karnataka, including pockets of Shivamogga, the home district of chief minister Yediyurappa.
The results came as an embarrassment to the ruling BJP, which is yet to put its house in order despite being in power for two years in the state. With allegations of mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic situation, poor performance, cash crunch, running a parallel administration through his second son (BY Vijayendra) and simmering dissent, Yediyurappa has spent most of his time in office managing one crisis after another.
The other factor, analysts said, that was helping the Congress was the gradual dilution of the former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy-led Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S).
Analysts also said that the Congress has put Siddharamaiah and Shivakumar at the helm of affairs which gives them the best chance for a revival, if the two can manage to put their differences aside.
“We have seen the gradual dilution of the JD(S), are increasingly getting marginalised and searching for a political identity for themselves. So that gives the Congress greater credibility in terms of revivalism in Karnataka politics,” Vinod MJ, a Bengaluru-based political analyst said.
“This is a kind of revival that the BJP cannot ignore,” he added.
