Karnataka Verdict: BJP’s bet on new faces fails unlike in Gujarat 

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai (left) with ex-CM BS Yediyurappa. (Photo: PTI/File)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) takes pride in its strong and dedicated cadre and an organised grassroots structure – its assets in many past electoral triumphs for the party.

To reinforce those vote catchers, the BJP borrowed a page from its own successful Gujarat election playbook and fielded many first-timers in the Karnataka assembly polls.

The upshot: a reduced seat share and constant voting percentage for the BJP as the strategy boomeranged in elections in which the Congress wrested back power.

Even in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP had gambled by fielding 45 new faces in elections last December to the 182-member state assembly. The move was a success, 43 of the 45 novices winning election. In Karnataka, only 14 of the 75 rookies it nominated ended up winners.

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Corruption charges, alleged nepotism, anti-incumbency, over-dependence on national leaders, instability and the absence of a definitive chief ministerial candidate all worked against the  party and the much-hyped Hindutva plank did not bring in votes.

The party’s decision to deny a nomination to 24 incumbent MLAs sparked the departure of a few leaders including a former chief minister and a deputy CM. In the seats of these 24, only 11 newcomers won. And among the 66 BJP winners were only 14 rookies while the Congress had 35 new MLAs.

Prominent among the newcomers is senior leader BS Yediyurappa’s son BY Vijayendra from Shikaripura, a constituency which the former Karnataka CM won four times. In Hukkeri, another novice Nikhil Katti, son of former MLA Umesh Katti, won.

In Vijayanagara, Siddharth Singh, son of MLA Anand Singh who defected from the Congress in 2019, was soundly beaten by from HR Gaviyappa of Congress. In 2018, Anand Singh had won the seat for BJP by a huge 30,125 votes. The tables turned this time with Gaviyappa prevailing over Siddharth with a majority of 33,723 votes.

Among the fresh faces, BJP had also given tickets to women. Much was expected from Asha Thimmappa in the Puttur constituency. But Congress candidate Ashok Kumar Rai trounced her by 29,910 votes. Sanjeeva Matandoor, who won the Puttur seat for BJP in 2018, had been denied the seat. Thimmappa was one among the 185 women candidates in the fray, but only 10 of them emerged victorious for different parties.

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For BJP, Manjula S, wife of incumbent MLA Aravind Limbavalli, won from the IT corridor of Mahadevapura. Fearing anti-incumbency, the BJP denied ticket to Limbavalli, the four-time MLA and former minister, who was involved in a controversy after he reportedly spoke rudely to a woman who came to him to complain of illegal encroachments in a video that went viral.

The reserved constituency of Mahadevapura had been in the news for all wrong reasons. Images of people being carried in ferries through waterlogged the roads in the constituency by heavy rain portrayed the seat and its MLA in a poor light. Fearing a backlash, the BJP decided not to field Limbavalli again. But he is likely to get a seat in the Parliamentary elections next year.

Manjula’s win, that too by a convincing margin of 44,501 over former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member-turned-Congressman H Nagesh, was a consolation victory. Retired bureaucrats and police officers, too, among BJP’s new faces, failed.

Former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Bhaskar Rao, who briefly joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) before switching to the BJP, lost Chamarajpet to Zameer Ahmed of Congress by 77,631 votes.

Another first-timer, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike commissioner and retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Anil Kumar, also lost the reserved Koratagere constituency to Congress heavyweight and former deputy chief minister G Parameshwara.

Former KAS officer LC Nagarj was another casualty, losing to Congress’s KN Rajanna in Madhugiri.

BJP may have realised that what works in one state may not work in the other, but the strategy grooming youngsters for political roles is expected to help it in the long run.