Karnataka verdict a secular disaster: Neither religion, nor caste politics, helped BJP

BJP only managed to retain its hold in the coastal belt (Representative image/PTI)

After the Karnataka  assembly poll results showed a clear victory for the Congress with  135 seats, party leader  Rahul Gandhi said: “Nafrat ki bazaar bandh, mohabbat ki dukan khuli hai,'' (the market of hate  is closed, the shop of love has opened). Rahul was referring to the polarisation the outgoing BJP government had pursued in Karnataka, with its hijab ban and other policies, while grappling with charges of corruption and incompetence.

Towards the fag end of the poll campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the campaign to another level with his  Bajrangbali slogans, challenging the Congress to ban him. The context was the Congress stating in its manifesto that it would ban radical outfits such as the Bajrang Dal and the Popular Front of India if they indulged in divisive activities.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah was not far behind when he said that voting for the Congress would  trigger communal violence, prompting the party to file a police complaint against him.

In a tweet on the day Modi was holding road shows in Bengaluru, BJP's Amit Malviya said: “While Prime Minister Modi is holding road shows across  Bengaluru,  the Gandhi siblings' campaign  will focus on Shivajinagar, Russell Market and Tannery Road  areas. All minority pockets.''

Nothing worked for the BJP

While pernicious issues such as the ban on hijab, halal, azaan, and boycott of  Muslim  traders were  expected to be poll planks for the BJP in the coastal belt of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, political parties, including the BJP,  chose to steer clear of  these topics in the rest of the state, where they dwelt on  nationalism and development. Also, some  policy decisions of the outgoing Basavaraj Bommai government, like tweaking the  reservation policy, dented  the BJP's prospects in many constituencies.

BJP only managed to retain its hold in the coastal belt, where the party won 11 of the 13 seats in the two districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. The  stir over the Hijab ban and the ban on Muslim traders had started from  these two districts.

The Bommai government's  decision to alter  the reservation quota by taking away the 4 percent quota for Muslims and distributing it equally among the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas, and placing them in a new category, failed to make an impact.

The  divisive move was undertaken to appeal to Vokkaligas in the Old Mysuru  region, as well as to appeal to Lingayats, who account for  17 percent of the state's population and dominate the Kittur Karnataka and the Kalyan Karnataka  belts. The Vokkaligas comprise 15 percent of the population.

The strategy  bombed in all the  three regions. The Lingayats were unimpressed that the BJP had allowed the protest by Lingayat  seers belonging to the Panchamasali sub-sect, who were demanding a higher reservation quota, to fester  till early this year, when the  new reservation quota was announced. The Panchamasalis  comprise 80 percent  of the Lingayat community, and are mostly in Kittur Karnataka, which has 50 seats.

The BJP government's  announcement  that it would build a  majestic Ram temple in Ramanagara and make it the Ayodhya of  South India also failed to impress voters, who seemed to be fatigued with the rhetoric.

What worked for the Congress

The five guarantees: 200 units of free electricity; Rs 2,000 per month to the matriarch of a household, 10 kg of rice per month to BPL families; an allowance for unemployed graduates and diploma holders; and  free travel for women in all state transport buses. These became the talking point for the ordinary people, who were burdened by rising prices.

The BJP government sliced the 17 percent reservation for the Scheduled Castes (SC) among the Left, Right, Touchables and `Other’ Dalit sects, which led to protests by the Left Dalits, who had voted for the BJP in 2008. This time, they voted the Congress to power.

Left and Right Dalits refer to left-handed and right-handed Dalits. The concept of left and right handed castes goes back to medieval times, and was once prevalent in south India. Historically, those considered left were more oppressed than the right-handed castes.

The Congress announcing that it would  ban the Bajrang Dal and Popular Front of  India if voted to power led to a consolidation of Muslim votes by winning over those who were  considering casting their lot with  Janata Dal (Secular).

This was also one of the reasons why the Janata Dal  (Secular) managed to secure  just 19 seats as its plan to divide the Muslim vote by giving the  highest number of  tickets ever to  candidates from the community failed.

“In the end, it became a question of  survival for Muslims and  they swung towards the Congress,'” a Congress  functionary  said.