If two-plus-two would mean four in politics, the return of BS Yeddyurappa to the BJP would have meant a clean sweep for the party in the former chief minister’s home turf. But since politics is as much about chemistry as it is about arithmetic, some fierce contests have emerged in Shivamogga.
Shivamogga is part of the scenic Malnad region of the Western Ghats that comprises part of Chikmagalur, Hassan, Kodagu and Uttara Kannada districts. Of the seven seats in this district, the BJP failed to secure even one in 2013 because Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka Janatha Paksha (KJP) chipped away at the parent party’s vote. In the State, the KJP had won six seats and cornered 9.79 per cent of the vote. Later, in 2014, Yeddyurappa, or BSY, who had stormed out of the BJP to float the KJP, returned to the parent party.
But by then, the KJP had dealt the BJP severe damage in the 2013 elections, particularly in Shivamogga. The BJP could manage just 9.67 per cent vote from all seven seats in the district, whereas Yeddyurappa’s KJP notched up a whopping 28.98 per cent, although he won only his Shikaripura seat. The rest of the seats was shared between the Congress and the JD(S).
This time around, with the KJP having merged with it, the BJP should ideally expect to sweep Shivamogga. But, at least for the present, the party seems confident of winning only three seats – Yeddyurappa’s own Shikaripura, Shivamogga city, where BSY’s arch-rival KS Eshwarappa is the candidate, and Shivamogga (Rural), where BSY’s former secretary Hira Naik’s son KB Ashok has been given a ticket.
In some constituencies, the BJP has struggled to accommodate BSY’s favourites.
The most talked-about is, of course, the Sorab Assembly segment, where former Chief Minister S Bangarappa’s sons Madhu and Kumar are contesting on JD(S) and BJP tickets respectively.
Kumar Bangarappa, formerly with the Congress, was brought to the BJP by BSY. His brother Madhu, a former Kannada film actor, is the sitting MLA. The late S Bangarappa held this seat from 1967 to 1994, after which Kumar took over and won successive polls — from 1996 to 2004. In 2004, Bangarappa and Kumar parted ways when the father contested the Shimoga parliamentary election on a BJP ticket, and the son was on the Congress’ side. But much water has flowed under the bridge since then and Kumar Bangarappa is now with the BJP.
But Madhu Bangarappa is a critic of his brother, and of Yeddyurappa.
“Yeddyurappa was a pathetic CM,” Madhu has famously said. “The BJP is sick. Kumar should go with an ambulance and a doctor.”
The ripple effect
But more than the squabble of the brothers, it is the side-effects of their bout that have had a rippling impact on the BJP’s prospects. The BJP’s original aspirant for the Sorab seat, H Hallappa, has been accommodated in the neighbouring Sagar constituency, thanks to his proximity to BSY. However, this has caused Belur Gopalakrishna, who had his eyes set on the Sagar seat, to burst into tears and leave the BJP. Gopalakrishna, a known party-hopper who has travelled from BJP to the JD(S) and back to the BJP, has since joined the Congress.
“I will make sure Haratalu Halappa loses from Sagar,” vowed Gopalakrishna on April 23, when he joined the Congress. His 86-year-old uncle, Congress leader Kagodu Thimappa, is the sitting Sagar MLA, and also the Revenue Minister in the Siddaramaiah ministry.
Gopalakrishna has defeated his uncle twice, in 2004 and 2008. In 2013, he had switched over to the JD(S) and contested against Thimappa, only to lose to him.
Where the Cong sits pretty
In the adjoining Tirthahalli constituency, home to writer UR Ananthmurthy and the legendary poet ‘Kuvempu’, State Education Minister Kimmanne Ratnakar is pitted against BJP bigwig Arga Gnanendra, and the JD(S)’s RM Manjunath Gowda. Ratnakar had won this constituency in 2013 by a thin margin of 1,343 votes. This time, local literary associations, teachers and the others in the region have pledged support to Kimmanne, while Arga Gnanendra is betting on his political work as an ABVP activist and MLA to trounce the minister.
Significantly, Manjunath Gowda, President of the Shivamogga District Cooperative Central Bank, is being probed for a scam involving disbursements of gold loans worth ₹65 crore. On February 21, Karnataka Law Minister TB Jayachandra told the Assembly that “Gowda was found in possession of ₹39 crore of disproportionate assets during a raid by the Lokayukta”.
While this triangular contest unfolds in Tirthahalli, Eshwarappa, who is contesting from Shivamogga city, told BusinessLine that despite the “initial confusion”, the BJP will “sweep Shivamogga and the State”.
For the moment, the BJP seems comfortable in only three out of seven seats in BSY’s own backyard. Yeddyurappa’s son, BY Raghavendra, the sitting MLA from Shikaripura, is campaigning furiously to maintain his father’s legacy in Shimoga. A “sweep” is very unlikely.