Congress, JDS tieup gives BJP opposition space in old Mysuru region

The Old Mysuru region has been a traditional battleground of the Congress and the JDS, but by contesting the forthcoming general election together these long-time rivals may unwittingly allow the BJP to step into the space of the main opposition.

In the eight districts that make up Old Mysuru – Mandya, Hassan, Mysore, Chamrajanagar, Kolar, Chikkballapur, Bengaluru Rural and Tumkur – the Congress was the dominant force till the early 1970s, and the Vokkaligas the dominant community.

But the formation of the Janata Party in 1977 and Vokkaliga leader HD Deve Gowda’s emergence as the face of the party changed the politics of the region. Since the early ’80s the region has seen a face-off between the JD(S) as the dominant party and the Congress as the main rival. Therefore, the JD(S) and the Congress contesting the polls in alliance goes against the grain of this region’s politics.

“We saw a spurt in the BJP’s vote share in the Mandya by-election when the Congress and JD(S) fielded a joint candidate. The question now is: Is this alliance unwittingly ceding the opposition space to the BJP?” said political analyst Prof Sandeep Shastri. “This also seems to be the dilemma of the Congress and JD(S)’s ground level leaders and workers.”

Unlike in northern Karnataka, the JD (S) has retained power in at least some parts of Old Mysuru in the southern part of the state. The BJP emerged as a powerful force in northern Karnataka after former chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde – whose sway over the Lingayat community was considerable – was expelled from the Janata Dal in the mid-1990s. Hegde formed the Lok Shakti party, which aligned with the BJP and helped in transfer of Lingayat votes from Janata Dal to the BJP.

More recently, the BJP has attempted to make inroads in the region. While Mysore Lok Sabha constituency elected a BJP candidate in the 2014 general election, the party emerged as the first runner-up in Mandya, Hassan, Kolar, Chikkballapur, Bengaluru Rural and Chamrajanagar constituencies, pushing either the Congress or the JD(S) to the third position.




“The BJP is trying to penetrate the voting population in Old Mysuru by organising programmes like Hanuman Jayanti (on the lines of Datta Jayatni in Chikkamagalur and Hindu Samajotsava in Dakshina Kannada). It is an attempt to capture the imagination of voters through cultural connect and then convert it into political votes,” said political analyst Prof Muzaffar H Asadi.

Bengaluru Rural constituency perhaps best captures the political change. The constituency traditionally saw a great rivalry between HD Kumaraswamy and Congress party’s DK Shivakumar. For the first time, the electorate will have to choose between the JD (S) and Congress on the one side and the BJP on the other. “We have to wait and see if the vote transfer will really happen from the JD(S) to the Congress and vice versa. While the BJP may not suddenly rise to power, at least that space has been created,” said Shastri.