Karnataka polls: How civil society bodies and farm movements are trying to create an impact

Polling will be held on May 10 and counting will take place on May 13

With only a fortnight left for the 2023 Karnataka Assembly Elections, a bevy of national star campaigners has descended on the State. While Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Shivraj Singh, Yogi Aditynath and Rajnath Singh spearheaded the BJP campaign, the Congress had its own star in Priyanka Gandhi, who is leading the charge from Mysore along with DK Shivakumar and Randeep Singh Surjewala. The Congress General Secretary tried her own gimmicks, and the video of her trying to fry dosas near Mysore went viral. She later travelled to Chikkamagaluru.

Campaigning heated up all over the State on Tuesday with even smaller parties such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Karnataka Sarvodaya Paksha (KSP) active in their strongholds. But, according to political pundits, there appears to be no wave this time. The Congress is in revival mode, and enjoying the benefits of the recent Bharat Jodo Yatra in the State by Rahul Gandhi. The BJP, meanwhile, is rolling out the big guns to reverse the anti-incumbency trend Karnataka is known for.

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From 1983 onwards, the people of Karnataka have never re-elected a government. The Congress had enjoyed the upper hand until then, but the advent of Janata Party in Karnataka, headed by Ramakrishna Hegde, altered the political dynamics.

With the Janata Party becoming the single largest party, Hegde was sworn in as the first non-Congress Chief Minister of Karnataka in 1983. With the party losing the Lok Sabha polls, he resigned on moral grounds, but swept the 1985 Assembly elections. From then on, Karnataka has seen a strong anti-incumbency vote in every election. “People of Karnataka always voted against unstable or corrupt governments,” said Mallappa, of Gokak, who was watching a farmers’ rally from the sidelines.

Apart from the farmers’ movement, many other groups and collectives have come up to oppose the BJP. However, it remains to be seen how much of this anti-incumbency sentiment will actually translate into votes.

Civil society organisations rally the vote

The Eddelu Karnataka (Wake Up Karnataka) movement, a collective of over 30 civil society organisations, NGOs and other networks, with the support of activists such as Yogendra Yadav and GN Devy, has identified over 100 constituencies to work on the ‘swing’ vote. “In about 120 constituencies the winners are more or less decided because of the strong candidates. But the other 100 are crucial. Here we’re trying to educate the voters with three guidelines — not to waste their vote; not to split their votes; and last, but not the least, vote only for the candidate best placed to defeat the BJP,” said Ashok Maridas, a leader of the EK.

“For many years civil society groups have come together and presented manifestoes but couldn’t add value to the votes. But now our volunteers have added 1.6 lakh new voters in these critical constituencies and have been mobilising ‘undecided’ voters, who’re very large in number,” he added.

Farm politics

Hundreds of farmers walking at a brisk pace in groups, waving their green shawls, are a common sight in the sugar belt of Karnataka during election time. The Green Army are all volunteers of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), which has revived its old political outfit, the Karnataka Sarvodaya’ Paksha (SKP), with the blessings of popular Dalit writer Devanoora Mahadeva, a tall Kannada literary figure.

The Sarvodaya Party, founded in 2005 by Mahadeva and popular farmer leaders such as KS Puttannaiah, contested the last elections in 2018 under the Swaraj India banner. “The SKP, which merged with Swaraj India in 2017, is contesting elections alone as Swaraj decided not to contest the elections till 2024. But I want to bank on the farmers and make a difference to Karnataka politics,” KRRS President Badagalapura Nagendra told reporters.

“We’re contesting from nine seats. Initially over 50 candidates, including seven lady farmers, came forward. But we’ve finalised nine after withdrawal of nominations so that we can focus on our candidates who have a winning chance. Darshan is our best bet and our candidates Madhuchandan (Mandya) and Manu Somaiah (Virajpet) have a strong following. We’ve a membership of around 20 lakh farmers,” said KSP chief Chamarasamali Patil.

Much before any other party started its campaign for the current elections, SKP offices were buzzing with activity. Besides the bundles of green shawls, youth were packing flags and dispatching pamphlets and posters in a highly energised atmosphere.

Darshan Puttannaiah is a techie-turned farmer leader with a huge following among both farmers and youth in Mandya district. But the political rookie lost the 2018 election by 22,224 votes to CS Puttaraju of the Janata Dal (Secular), who resigned as MP to contest the Assembly elections.

Swaraj India had initially fielded his father, Puttannaiah, a sitting MLA from Melukote, for re-election. But Puttannaiah Senior passed away two months before the election and Darshan was forced to contest the Melukote seat. It was a baptism by fire and after a tough fight, the US-returned Darshan lost narrowly.

Darshan led and united sugarcane farmers and campaigned for their cause in October. Many of the politicians own sugar factories, and sugarcane politics usually peaks during elections.

Talking about farmers’ politics, Swaraj India President Yogendra Yadav said: “Non-agricultural people can buy agricultural land in Karnataka. BJP and JD(S) brought this law, but now the latter is willing to withdraw it. The farmers in Karnataka are still fighting against these laws.”

After the final list, 2,613 candidates are contesting the Karnataka Assembly Elections. While the BJP is contesting all 224 seats, the Congress has left the Melukote seat to the KSP. The JD (S) has fielded candidates for 207 seats. That makes the AAP the party with the third highest number of candidates, at 209. The BSP is contesting in 133 seats.

While the number of women candidates has come down from 219 in 2018 to 185 this time, the number of male candidates has also reduced, marginally, from 2,436 to 2,427.

Polling will be held on May 10 and counting will take place on May 13.