Temple town Udupi serves a complex caste menu in its 5 seats

The temple town of Udupi, known for the eponymous vegetarian restaurants, presents a complex caste menu in its five assembly constituencies, keeping the Congress and BJP guessing alike about its political flavour this poll season.
There are many facades to this coastal town that houses eight temples of the Dvaita stream of Hindu Mutts — a Brahminical spiritual order forms the exterior though these mutts lack the influence of the Lingayat Mutts.

The Udupi-Manipal belt showcases an upwardly mobile middle class, thriving in the spirit of private business-banking enterprises. As the net is spread deeper and wider comes the politics of caste and Hindutva.

In 2013, the Congress won three seats and the BJP two in Udupi. If that had marked a bounce back for the Congress, the BJP regained form with an impressive win in the lone Lok Sabha seat in 2014 and by wresting the local bodies.

The BJP’s best bets here are Modi and Hindutva. The distinct identities of the region include widespread use of the Konkani and Tulu languages, something that can neutralise the ‘Kannada language’ card of the Congress.

In coastal areas, even among sections of numerically strong OBCs, Hindutva remains an influencing factor that helps the BJP counter CM Siddaramaiah’s AHIND plank. The Bunts (Shettys), Gowda Saraswat Brahmins and the dominant OBC castes, including Billava (also called Poojarys), form the bulk of Modi fans.

“Modi is the only strong politician who can make changes. Karnataka too will join the BJP stream...,” said Gopal Krishna, a silversmith.

On the rival side, the Congress’ best hopes are rooted on three factors: the widely perceived good constituency-nurturing by its three sitting MLAs of Udupi, Kapu and Baindoor seats; the extensive talk about a newly acquired disillusionment among the Billava community with the BJP for having denied the caste its share in selection of candidates and the perceived goodwill among the socially and economically backwards,, including the fishermen community and Dalits.