scorecardresearch
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
Advertisement
Premium

Karnataka assembly elections 2018: In Uttara Kannada seat, anger against local MP may affect BJP chances

More than 200 BJP workers were booked in over 50 cases in Uttara Kannada for alleged involvement in violence in Kumta and Sirsi towns of the district.

Karnataka assembly elections 2018: In Uttara Kannada seat, anger against local MP may affect BJP chances Soni accused his political guru — Union minister and BJP Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada Ananth Kumar Hegde — of abandoning party workers from lower castes after “using” them to create communal violence in the region.

On April 20, shortly after the BJP put out its third list of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections, Suraj Naik Soni, 46, a local leader with several cases of communal violence registered against him last year, vented his frustration at being denied a ticket to contest from Kumta constituency. Soni accused his political guru — Union minister and BJP Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada Ananth Kumar Hegde — of abandoning party workers from lower castes after “using” them to create communal violence in the region.

A few days later, Soni, who finished third in 2013 elections while contesting on a BJP ticket in Kumta, filed his nomination for May 12 polls as an Independent.

With this, Soni has put prospects of the BJP candidate — Dinakar Shetty, a former JD(S) legislator from Kumta, in jeopardy. The constituency is in Uttara Kannada district, part of the communally sensitive coastline of Karnataka.

Advertisement

“I am a rebel BJP candidate. The minister (Ananth Kumar Hegde) needs to explain how someone who recently joined the party (Dinakar Shetty), and has lost three of four elections, has been given the ticket,” Soni said.

Also read | In Cauvery country, a farmer leader’s son Darshan Puttanaiah back from Denver to lead his father’s battle

Festive offer

When communal violence hit Kumta and surrounding areas in December 2017, in the aftermath of the mysterious death of an 18-year-old boy named Paresh Mesta following communal clashes in nearby Honnavar town, Soni’s name had figured as prime accused in several incidents. The violence, in which shops and business establishments of a particular community were attacked, was widely seen as part of an attempt to polarise voters and get the majority community to vote en bloc.

But contrary to expectation of consolidation of Hindu votes in favour of the BJP, there seems to be more divisions in the party as a result of these communal incidents.

Advertisement

Soni’s rebellion seems to echo a long-standing feeling among many in coastal Karnataka that Sangh Parivar leaders “use” people from lower castes to allegedly whip up communal sentiments and subsequently abandon them.

Also read | Congress manifesto targets youth with 1 crore jobs in 5 years

“A sense of resentment against the BJP MP (Hegde) has set in after the communal incidents of December 2017 because he never came forward to help party workers who were accused. There is a sense that workers were used and then abandoned. Twill have a bearing on the elections,’’ Guru Nayak, a farmers’ leader and resident of Kumta town, said.

Karnataka assembly elections 2018: In Uttara Kannada seat, anger against local MP may affect BJP chances Suraj Naik Soni, former BJP leader, and Independent candidate from Kumta constituency in Uttara Kannada district.

More than 200 BJP workers were booked in over 50 cases in Uttara Kannada for alleged involvement in violence in Kumta and Sirsi towns of the district.

Advertisement

Soni said, “I am a loyal party worker and have been with the Hindu Jagaran Vedike and ABVP. For me, the party’s ideology is foremost. I was in jail for 21 days in March this year for fighting to protect cows. But the party chose to give the ticket to a man who emerges only during elections.”

Dinakar Shetty is taking on sitting MLA Sharada Mohan Shetty of Congress. The BJP’s calculations seem to have been dictated by the fact that Dinakar lost in 2013 by only 420 votes.

But Soni pointed out that in 2013, the BJP was a divided house and a candidate from the Karnataka Janata Party, which the current state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa had then floated, had split BJP votes, leaving him in third place. “I may have won comfortably if the BJP was united,” Soni said.

Guru Nayak said the decision to field Dinakar seems to have made the going tough for BJP, and the situation may now favour Sharada Shetty despite anti-incumbency. “The local buzz is that Dinakar Shetty is Yeddyurappa’s candidate and thus got the ticket,” Nayak claimed.

Advertisement

Besides Soni, a second rebel BJP candidate in Yashodhar Nayak, a businessman involved with social work in Kumta who recently joined the party and is reportedly favoured by the RSS, is also likely to affect Dinakar’s prospects. Both Suraj Naik Soni and Yashodhar Nayak are Namdhari Naiks, the dominant community in the constituency.

The second dominant community is the Halaki Vokkaligas.

Both Namdhari Naiks and Halaki Vokkaligas are backward castes and make up nearly 30 per cent of the population in Uttara Kannada, and nearly 50 per cent in Kumta.

“Dinakar Shetty and Sharada Shetty have barely 2,000 voters from their own community in the constituency. I think I stand a fair chance since I am appealing on the ground of injustice and I will join the BJP if I am elected,’’ Suraj Soni said.

Guru Nayak pointed out that another reason Dinakar Shetty was able to give Sharada Shetty a close fight in 2013 was because he had successfully attracted minority votes — about 12 per cent of the electorate of Kumta is Muslim — and is likely to lose a majority of these votes, having joined the BJP.

Advertisement

The JD(S) has fielded a relatively new figure, Pradeep Nayak, who locals say has not been able to generate much traction among voters.

The Muslim vote in Kumta appears to be consolidating in favour of the Congress candidate despite some level of disgruntlement in places hit by communal violence and the incumbent MLA’s alleged failure to meet minority families and offer them support at the time.

Farmer leader Guru Nayak said, “One of the key factors in this election is the fact that people are tired of the use of local incidents for polarisation, especially among people from the backward castes who have been made the scapegoat time and again. It may have a bearing in the whole region.”

First uploaded on: 28-04-2018 at 02:08 IST
Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement
shorts
Maguntas
Political PulseUpdated: March 28, 2024 20:11 IST

Away from the national capital’s courtroom where the case against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is playing out, two key figures embroiled in the excise policy case – four-time MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and his son Raghava Magunta Reddy – are busy campaigning for BJP ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP)

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
close