Karnataka Election Results: BJP bastion Kittur Karnataka falls to the Congress

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with senior party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala celebrates party's win in the Karnataka Assembly elections (PTI Photo)

Considered a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Kittur Karnataka (earlier Bombay Karnataka) made a volte face with overwhelming support for the Indian National Congress, which has swept the region.

Belgaum district became the cynosure of all eyes with Congress wresting a majority of seats and turning the tables in three more constituencies and increasing its tally from eight to 11 seats in the district, which sends the second-largest number of MLAS to the State Assembly after Bengaluru Urban. No wonder the winter session of Karnataka Assembly is held in Belgaum every year.

The crucial region, which opens a migrant labour corridor with three of Maharashtra’s districts, forms a key part of Kittur Karnataka, and the caste politics, personal clout and farmers’ fury, have all played a major role in the outcome of the 18 seats.

While BJP retained the crucial seats in neighbouring Hubli-Dharwad with incumbent Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai winning the Shiggaon seat, former CM Jagadish Shettar, who switched sides to Congress failed to carry home the Lingayat vote base and lost to his former understudy Mahesh Tenginkai.

In the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023, many high-profile national leaders of the saffron party, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, flocked to the sugarcane bowl of Karnataka, which had very high stakes, but the people preferred Congress in 37 seats, a whopping 17 seats more than they won in 2018. BJP could retain only 18 of the 33 sitting MLAs.

Kittur Karnataka was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency before Independence. It shares a border with Maharashtra and is the corridor of migrant labourers during the sugarcane season. It was a stronghold of BJP as the party won maximum seats here in 2008 and 2018. The only exception was 2013 owing to the BS Yediyurappa split, but now Congress makes a comeback in the region which has high numbers of Muslim population.

In Gokak, Ramesh Jarkiholi, who switched from Congress to BJP and was the mastermind behind “Operation Kamala” which floored the HD Kumaraswamy government, retained the seat with a decent margin over Congress’ rookie candidate Mahantesh Kadadi.

The 63-year-old Ramesh’s victory in Gokak, for the seventh time in a row and for the second time under the BJP banner, clearly indicates his charisma in a constituency which he has been representing since 1999. For the 42-year-old Mahantesh, it has been a baptism by fire, though he was impressive in some pockets. Ramesh had first won the seat on a Congress ticket in 1999 and has since then held on to it, despite switching to the saffron camp.

In the neighbouring Arabhavi constituency, which has also been a traditional Jarkiholi stronghold, the status quo will be maintained with Bhalachandra Jarkiholi winning for the fifth time for the BJP.

Belgaum Rural has been another constituency which had been in the spotlight. Congress’ incumbent MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar, a close confidant of Congress chief DK Shivakumar, won over BJP’s Nagesh Mannolkar. In the 2018 assembly polls, Hebbalkar had won the constituency which has 2.57 lakh voters.

The closely contested battle saw Laxmi taking a decisive lead. Independent candidate RM Chougule has been the surprise package here as he is perched third, winning a significant number of votes.

The scenario in Athani was very interesting. Laxman Savadi, the BJP MLC who switched to the Congress camp after being denied an assembly seat, won against BJP’s sitting MLA Mahesh Iranagoud Kumatalli. It is interesting to note the role reversals for both the candidates. In 2018, Sawadi, the former Deputy Chief Minister of the State, had contested on a BJP ticket while Mahesh was with Congress before he crossed over to BJP in 2019 along with Ramesh Jarkiholi.

Out of the 56 seats in the seven districts, Congress won 37 (20 in 2018), BJP 18 (33) and JDS 1(2). Kittur Karnataka consists of Uttara Kannada, Belgaum, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Dharwad, Haveri and Gadag.