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Local body polls first test for CM Bommai
The election would not just be a test for the newly sworn in chief minister but also an indication if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been successful in consolidating its grass root level workers and whether its decision to give the top job to someone from North Karnataka would gain the confidence of the people in a region that continues to feel alienated against its more prosperous southern counterparts.
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai is likely to face his first electoral challenge in the upcoming urban local body polls in 252 wards on September 3.
The election would not just be a test for the newly sworn in chief minister but also an indication if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been successful in consolidating its grass root level workers and whether its decision to give the top job to someone from North Karnataka would gain the confidence of the people in a region that continues to feel alienated against its more prosperous southern counterparts.
Among those urban local bodies going to the polls are Hubbali-Dharwad, Belagavi and Kalaburagi, which are key districts in the northern part of the state.
“It will be a three-way fight in Belagavi between BJP, Congress and MES (Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti),” said one Congress worker in the district, requesting not to be named.
The decision to field candidates under their own banners and not through proxy this time is likely to add to the challenges of the national parties who have so far pursued a strategy of either supporting the pro-Kannada or pro-Marathi hopefuls.
The urban local body polls come months after the ruling-BJP was routed by the Congress in May this year.
The Congress had won six (119 out of the 266 total seats) of the 10 urban local body polls conducted in April 27 this year, leaving the BJP with just one and Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) with two victories.
This included victories in BJP strongholds like Ballari and Thirthalli, which is in the home district of former chief minister BS Yediyudappa, Hindustan Times reported on May 1.
The alleged mishandling of Covid-19 by Yediyurappa, people aware of the developments said, was among the main reasons for the poor outing by the BJP in the April urban local body polls.
Already hit with dissent from within the BJP, allegations of mismanagement of timely flood and drought relief and legislators continuing to air their displeasure in public over being overlooked for the Cabinet, the upcoming polls are likely to pile the challenges on Bommai and also presents an opportunity for the chief minister to step out of the shadow of his mentor and predecessor, Yediyurappa.
The MES, a pro-Maharashtra outfit that has been fighting to be included with the neighbouring state, have alleged that those in power are trying to “disturb the homogeneity of the society” in Belagavi.
“They (ruling party) have bifurcated the wards in an unscientific way, dividing it on basis like majority,” Deepak Dalvi, the president of the MES said.
He said that there has been a systematic effort to ensure the MES votes are split or wards have been categorized in a way that it will be disadvantageous for the separatist party.
Belagavi is also the home district of the powerful “Jarkiholi brothers” who have, in the past, put their own interests before the party’s.
Ramesh and Balachandra Jarkiholi, both with the BJP, have been holding meetings with dissidents after they were left out of the Bommai Cabinet.
Urban local body polls and the yet-to-be announced gram and zilla panchayat polls are key to get the pulse of the cadre at grass root levels which would help all three parties understand if their efforts to consolidate support base before the 2023 assembly elections.
There is a feeling of neglect in Kalaburagi district, a divisional headquarters, after Bommai decided against anyone from this region in his Cabinet.
“If there was a minister from this region, it could have boosted voting,” said a BJP worker from the district.
He, however, added that the party is strong in the district and legislators are coming together to work for the polls.
In 2019, the BJP managed to oust 11-time winner and Congress behemoth, Mallikarjuna Kharge in the Lok Sabha polls by backing his former aide who jumped to the BJP, Umesh Jadav.
