The Congress is going all out to woo even fence-sitters and micro-minorities in Badami as every vote will count for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in this historic northern Karnataka town.
It is for the first time that a chief minister hailing from the South will contest elections in the North. The Congress’ move to field Siddaramaiah from Bagalkot district is avowedly part of the party’s efforts to bridge the north-south divide: the State government has spent huge resources on development in the region.
The BJP, too, has a high-profile candidate for the constituency: B Sriramulu, the Ballari MP, is a close associate of former State minister and mining scam accused Gali Janardhana Reddy.
“It is a contest of outsiders. But it is matter of pride for the Congress as the Chief Minister is being fielded and I have gladly made way for him,” says Devaraj Patil, who was one of the claimants for the seat.
“Here in Badami, no one wants to lose a CM candidate. This time around even the Lingayats are voting for the Congress,” Patil says.
Lingayats are traditional voters of the BJP and the Congress is banking on the community’s reluctance to vote for backward caste candidates; Sriramulu is a member of the Scheduled Tribe.
If he wins Badami and Chamundeshwari, his old seat in Mysuru, Siddaramaiah is likely to give up the former. But the Chief Minister has certainly brought a lot of hope to this backward district, which is dependent on tourism and agriculture, especially horticulture crops.
Badami, once a capital of the Chalukya empire, is well-known for its temple architecture from between the 5th and 8th centuries. The Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) has been promoting Badami for its cave temples and has a package comprising the Badami-Aihole-Pattadakal tourist triangle.
Political equations
What makes a Congress victory easier is that the RSS does not have a strong leader in the taluk; the BJP workers are all former workers of the Janata Party and later of the late Ramakrishna Hegde’s Janata Dal United.
The Badami constituency has a huge voter base of 2.15 lakh voters.
The Congress is relying heavily on the 51,000-strong Kuruba community to which Siddaramaiah belongs, the Scheduled Caste vote of 15,000, and the 20,000 votes of the minorities.
Sriramalu is eyeing the votes of the various Lingayats sub-groups of about 65,000 people and those of the backward communities.
The JD(S) candidate Hanumanta B Mavinamaradha, being a Panchamshali Lingayat, may eat into the BJP’s vote base, locals say.
Around 15,000 voters are still undecided. They belong to communities such as the Reddy-Lingayat (10,000 voters), the Brahmins (4,000), Marwadis (around 2,000) and others (1,500).
“Due to good policies and the encouragement of the Congress government, we [the Congress] are confident of getting a sizeable vote of the Marwadis, the Nekara (weaver) community, the Agastiyas (dhobis), the ambanis, kambars (metal artisans), the Kumbars (potters), the Badigars (carpenters), the Samal community (chappal-makers), the fishermen, the Bajantris (nadaswara players) and the Bovis.”
On the BJP’s prospects, MK Pattanashetti, himself a three-time legislator, said: “After a long period, we are seeing candidate drawing huge crowds in this constituency.”
“Although Sriramulu is an outsider, he has been mixing well with everyone, especially the youth. The BJP is sure of getting substantial Valmiki votes.”
“Sriramalu, when he was the district in-charge of Gadag under the BS Yeddyurappa-led BJP government, had conducted a mass-marriage of 50,000 couples. Of these 6,000 couples were from Badami.”
Development schemes
The Congress is also banking on the ₹55,000 crore spent on numerous development works in Mumbai-Karnataka, the region that borders Maharashtra.
But BJP is harping on the Narendra Modi government’s projects and programmes, especially the urban development ministry’s Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY). In 2015, 12 heritage cities including Badami were selected under the programme. Badami was sanctioned ₹19.18 crore under HRIDAY, of which ₹4.04 crore was released.
Overall, the CM’s candidature from this north Karnataka constituency has boosted the Congress’ prospects in Mumbai-Karnataka, a region which is considered to a BJP stronghold.