Kanakapura, Karnataka: D.K. Shivakumar, president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), filed his nomination for the state elections on Monday, April 17, in his native Kanakapura constituency after praying at the temple of the local deity, Kenkeramma.
Shivakumar, a seven-time MLA from the Congress who is known as the party’s money man, is a contender for the post of chief minister along with Siddaramaiah, who currently serves as the leader of the opposition in the state assembly.
Having arrived in Kanakapura from Bengaluru on a two-wheeler, Shivakumar held a massive roadshow before filing his nomination. Addressing the crowd, he expressed his confidence that the Congress party would form the government in the state with 150 seats to their credit.
The Shettar effect
Shivakumar’s confidence at the public gathering perhaps stemmed partly from the fact that veteran politician Jagadish Shettar, a former chief minister of Karnataka, recently quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined the Congress. Jagadish Shettar is from the north Karnataka region, which is a bastion of the BJP.
Shettar joined the Congress on April 17 in the presence of Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge who also hails from Karnataka, D.K. Shivakumar and Siddaramiah. He said he had left the BJP because the party denied him a ticket in the forthcoming elections. Though the media reported that BJP president J.P. Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah had promised Shettar a governorship, Shettar said he was kept in the dark and denied a ticket at the last minute.
Given Shettar’s resignation from the BJP, the media speculates that the saffron party is sidelining senior leaders such as B.S. Yediyurappa and Shettar. But the BJP has refrained from any public show of bad blood. In fact, Basavaraj Bommai, the current chief minister of the state, has expressed regret for Shettar’s resignation.
The BJP’s caution stems from the fact that the Lingayat community, which is supposed to constitute 17% of the population of Karnataka, can make or break the fortunes of candidates in about 95 constituencies in North Karnataka. The supposed disrespect by the Congress party in 1989 to former chief minister Veerendra Patil, a member of the Lingayat community, had affected the party’s fortunes in the state.
Shettar is one of several BJP leaders who have joined the Congress. But he did not sound happy about it. At the press conference to welcome him to the party, Shettar said he had been humiliated by the BJP which was unfortunate because his family had been associated with the saffron party since the days of its predecessor, the Jan Sangh.
Also Read: Jagadish Shettar, Laxman Savadi and the Obvious Dent in BJP’s Lingayat Base in Karnataka
Shivakumar’s rivals
Whether or not the Congress wins the assembly elections, Shivakumar himself is expected to win the Kanakapura constituency. He is a leader from the Vokkaliga community of the Old Mysore region, where the Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)] enjoys considerable clout and hopes to play kingmaker in the event of a hung assembly.
The Kanakapura constituency usually provides the JD(S) with 50,000 to 60,000 votes. The JD(S) stands second in the affection of the people, while the Congress ranks first and the BJP has always stood a distant third.
But this time, the BJP has fielded R. Ashok, the current revenue minister of Karnataka, to stand from Kanakapura. Ashok is also contesting from his native Padmanabhanagara constituency in Bengaluru, which he won in the 2018 assembly elections. Worried that the Kanakapura electorate believes he will return to Padmanabhanagara if he wins both seats, Ashok has assured the locals that he will retain the Kanakapura seat if he wins it.
In the past, the Kanakapura constituency elected P.G.R. Sindya from the Janatha Paksha, the former avatar of the Janata Dal, five times. In his 30 years in the assembly, Sindhia served variously as the home, finance and transport minister of the state. Now he has retired from active politics not only due to his age, but also to the fact that when the assembly constituencies were redrawn, Shivakumar’s original constituency of Sathanur was merged with Kanakapura.
Constituency clues
Ashok’s candidature in Kanakapura may not go down well with locals, said A.N. Prakash, a cloth store owner in Kanakapura town.
“Ashok is not a local candidate and has not visited the area even once after his candidature was announced from here. Meanwhile, the JD(S) has always stood second here so far. It will be a smooth ride here for the Congress party’s Shivakumar, but I can’t say how the party will fare in the entire state,” Prakash told The Wire.
Auto drivers Gurulinga and Prasanna also believe that Shivakumar will win Kanakapura. Unlike Prakash however, they also think the Congress could win the state. “The BJP has dented our incomes by increasing fuel prices,” they said.
In the Kanakapura constituency, Shivakumar is credited with several development projects, including the facilitation of the construction of a new maternity hospital in town by the Infosys Foundation.
A maternity hospital constructed by the Infosys Foundation in Kanakapura town which was apparently facilitated by D.K. Shivakumar. Photo: G. Ram Mohan
According to a journalist who has spent 15 years covering local news, in fielding Ashok, the BJP hopes to make some inroads in Kanakapura and increase its voter base. Praveen Shetty, who runs a hotel in the town, adds that the local BJP cadre has become active since Ashok’s candidature was announced.
However, N.H. Venugopal, a Congress supporter, said, “DK brought a prominence to Kanakapura that had been absent even after we sent Sindya to the assembly for 30 years. We want our man to become the chief minister.”
Unofficial estimates peg the population of the Vokkaliga community in Kanakapura at 44.1% (98,000), the Kuruba community at 2.7% (6,000), the Lingayat community at 8.1% (18,000), the minority community at 9.9% (22,000) and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities at 19.8% (44,000).
The Kanakapura assembly constituency was listed as the most backward taluk by the Nanjundappa Committee in 2002. But Shivakumar is credited with developing the area. His brother D.K. Suresh is currently a member of parliament from the Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency, of which the Kanakapura assembly constituency is a part.
G. Ram Mohan is a freelance journalist. He can be contacted on Twitter at @mnirm.