Karnataka Elections: After stiff three-way fight, Congress wins key battles in Old Mysore region

Congress leader Siddaramaiah reacts as the party leads in Assembly polls in the early trends, on the vote counting day, in Mysuru (PTI Photo)

Clearly, the campaign blitzkrieg by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top brass of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who made majority of his 20 forays in the State to the region, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, et al, focusing on a national, sometimes divisive, agenda did not have any decisive impact on the Karnataka electorate of the Old Mysore region, with the State voting as one for a stable government, fed up with ‘Operation Kamala’ repeats.

Dominated by the Vokkaliga community, the region includes Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan, Ramanagara, Chamarajanagar, Chikkaballapur, Kolar and Kodagu districts, among others. The Vokkaligas comprise nearly 50 percent of the electorate in the constituency, a majority of whom are farmers, and includes the urban pockets of Mysore city, and Mandya, Hassan and Madikeri towns.

Congress strategy works

These territories that were under the erstwhile princely state of Mysore, stretching through the southern parts of Karnataka, now called the Old Mysore region, comprise 61 seats after the 2018 delimination exercise, spread from Bengaluru (Rural) to Chamarajanagar districts.

JD(S) this time failed to hold on its traditional Vokkaliga support in full and Muslims clearly appear to have voted as a bloc for the Congress. The Congress, apart from the AHINDA (OBCs, Dalits, and Muslims) votes it depends on, have also secured support from a section of Vokkaligas, Lingayats and other forward communities in the region. The support of the Vokkaliga community had hitherto helped JD(S) play the role of a ‘disruptive’ king maker in the past elections.

Emboldened by the inroads it has made in the regions with its victories in two constituencies of Mysore city and Kodagu, and Chikkamagalur and K.R. Pete in Mandya, BJP, in an apparent bid at countering an anticipated blowback from Lingayats, had made robust efforts at garnering the Vokkaliga votes with Yogi Adityanath et al pushed into service. Mandya MP Sumalatha, who won as an Independent, supporting the BJP was showcased. But these efforts have clearly not proved enough for the saffron party.

Nikhil loses again

For the JD(S), that has its numbers down and therein no role in Government formation, it is a bundle of both good and bad stories. Former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy retained the Channapatna in Bangalore Rural seat by a margin of around 13, 000 votes while his brother HD Revanna won the Holenarasipur (Hassan) seat defeating Congress’ Sherya S Patel by a slender margin of 3,000 votes. But it was tough luck for Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the son of HD Kumaraswamy and grandson of former prime minister and JD(S) chief Deve Gowda, who lost Ramanagara constituency to HA Iqbal Hussain of Congress by a margin of over 10,000 votes. He had made an unsuccessful effort in the last Lok Sabha elections contesting from Mandya.

But, another family of father and son duo of the party were more successful with GT Deve Gowda, the Siddaramaiah 2018 slayer, winning yet against from Chamundeshwari (Mysore District) and his son GD Harish Gowda winning for the party from Hunsur (Mysore District).

The party also wrested the prestigious Hassan seat from BJP with Swaroop Prakash defeating sitting MLA Preetham J Gowda of BJP by a margin of around 8,000 votes.

BJP fails to ‘Finish Siddaramaiah’

Congress workers rejoiced over the victories of KPCC President D K Shivakumar and former chief minister Siddaramaiah, not to mention the clear majority the party had secured. ‘Rock of Kanakapura’ DK Shivakumar, the seven-time MLA from the constituency, defeated B Nagaraju of JD(S) by a whopping margin, polling 1,42,156 to B Nagaraju’s 20,561.

At Varuna (Mysore District), BJP failed in its operation ‘Finish Siddaramaiah’, despite a personal push by Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah himself, all efforts at causing a caste polarisation, and the PM delivering an attack on the Congress at Nanjangud and accused it of trying to divide the country. Siddaramaiah staved off the challenge from Housing Minister V Somanna, polling 1,19,816 votes to the BJP candidate’s 73,653. Somanna lost from the neighbouring Chamarajnagar constituency too, losing out to sitting MLA Puttaranga Shetty of the Congress by a margin of around 7, 000 votes.

In Mysore city, the Congress wrested the Chamaraja seat from the BJP, with its candidate K. Harish Gowda defeating sitting MLA L Nagendra by a margin of around 3,000 votes. Congress’ Tanveer Sait retained the Narasimharaja seat, helped by the split of votes between BJP’s Sandesh Swamy and Abdul Majeed of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). And no damage appeared to have been done to the BJP in the Krishnaraja constituency even though sitting MLA Ramadas was denied the ticket, with party’s T.S. Srivathsa retaining the seat defeating M.K. Somashekar by a margin of over 7,000 votes.

Kodagu shows BJP the door

In one of the major upsets of the 2023 elections, two first-time Congress candidates, A S Ponnanna (Virajpet) and Mantar Gowda (Madikeri), have ended the BJP’s 20-year run in Kodagu, which was a stronghold of the saffron party. Madikeri voted for Dr. Mantar Gowda of the Congress, ousting sitting MLA Appachu Ranjan of the BJP. Dr. Gowda polled 84,879 as against Appachu Ranjan’s 80,477. In the district’s second constituency Virajpet, Ajjikuttira Subbaiah Ponnanna, son of the mercurial political figure Ajjikutira Kariappa Subbaiah of the Congress polled 83, 791 votes to oust sitting BJP MLA K G Bopaiah who polled 79, 500 votes.

“The people of Kodagu have voted wisely and in favour of development. Kodagu, considered the bastion of the BJP, showed its sitting legislators the door,” says Roy David of Kushalnagar.

In another major upset for the BJP, C T Ravi, current National General Secretary of BJP, and a four-time legislator from the Chikmagalur Constituency was defeated by his former aide and Congress’s HD Thammaiah by a margin of nearly 7,000 votes.