Karnataka Elections 2018: It won’t be a cakewalk for Siddaramaiah in Badami

Ramakrishna Upadhya

Badami in north Karnataka, which is on the world heritage map because of its magnificent sixth century cave temples, could grab the headlines once again when the state election results are announced on May 15. Its largely impoverished citizens will decide the political fate of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Neither its historical importance as the heart of Chalukya kingdom which ruled much of southern and central India from sixth to eighth century AD nor its UNESCO-notified world heritage status has brought any development to Badami – a fate it shares with neighbouring Pattadakal and Aihole, which too boast of wonderful monuments and whose potential for tourism has been ignored by successive governments.

People of Badami complain that Sidaramaiah as CM had not stepped into their town in the last five years. It may be justified as well because the loose red soil on the main road in Badami would have covered his sparkling white dhoti and shirt all over with mud!

Dwelling on Siddaramaiah’s ‘sudden love’ for Badami, Vittala Mallappa Katti, a wizened old man, puts a rhetorical question, “Why did he choose Badami among all the 224 constituencies?” And answers himself, “Because he wants to play caste politics.”

Though Badami was on Siddaramiah’s political radar for over six months, he kept insisting that he would contest only from Chamundeshwari, having vacated Varuna for his son, Yatheendra. At the time of finalisation of party candidates in New Delhi in the presence of Rahul Gandhi, when Siddaramaiah mentioned his desire to contest from two places, there was strong opposition from senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily and Parameshwara, who argued that it would send a ‘wrong message’ to the people. Siddaramaiah had no option but to acquiesce when the party decided to field Devaraj Patil from Badami.

After filing his nomination papers from Chamundeshwari, Siddaramaiah stayed back in the constituency for a few days. He was perhaps shocked to find that the ground had shifted under his feet, with the entire Opposition joining hands against him, and Chamundeshwari no longer being a safe seat.

When a sulking Siddaramaiah stayed put in his home town Mysuru for five days, Congress party’s Karnataka in-charge KC Venugopal, KPCC president Parameshwara and senior leader DK Shivakumar rushed to Mysuru to pacify him. It was only then that Rahul Gandhi gave Siddaramaiah green signal to contest from Badami as well.

From a high of becoming the first chief minister in 40 years to complete a full five-year term, Siddaramaiah has hit a new low as the first sitting chief minister in the history of the state to simultaneously seek election from two different constituencies.

In order to put a veneer of respectability to his decision, Siddaramaiah claimed that he wanted to give a sense of belonging to the backward north Karnataka. He also tried to silence the jeering BJP by saying that Narendra Modi too had contested from two constituencies in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress party and Siddaramaiah believe that since Badami has a sizeable Kuruba population, the community to which Siddaramaiah belongs, it will be easy for him to win and his presence in Badami will also boost the prospects of other candidates in the neighbouring constituencies.

But, speaking to sections of people in Badami, it was clear to this writer that Siddaramaiah may not have it as easy as might have initially believed. The going appears tough for him. There are said to be about 47,000 Kurubas in a total electorate of 2.14 lakh voters, whereas the Lingayats constitute about 72,000 and the Valmikis around 30,000.

In Karnataka, the caste bonding is pretty strong and unless the chief minister is able to win over the people of other communities on the strength of the policies and programmes of his government and more importantly, the votes of a section of Lingayats, Siddaramaiah will find it difficult to cross the winning line.

The BJP has put up B Sriramulu to take on Siddaramaiah in the hope that Yeddyurappa’s influence over Lingayat voters and Sriramulu’s own Valmiki community may see him through. The rub is that like Siddaramaiah, Sriramulu too is contesting from two seats, which many voters are clearly wary of.

Sandwiched between two bigwigs is the JD(S)’s candidate, Hanumanth Mavinamarad, who is an interesting dark horse in the fray. Hanumanth, who is relatively young at 38, is locally bred and popular among the people.

Hanumanth says that he has been in politics for 12 years and as vice-president of Bagalkot zilla panchayat, he had brought drinking water to many villages from the Malaprabha river. His ambition is to use the backwaters of Almatti dam for irrigation and drinking purposes in Badami and surrounding villages and he has already discussed this project with HD Kumaraswamy, his party leader.

Hanumanth’s other plus points are that he belongs to the influential Panchamasali sect of Lingayat community, but says he has supporters among all communities and that in the last one year and he has visited almost all the households in the constituency.

People have good things to say about him, and to his great advantage, he is seen as someone who will remain with the people after the elections. Siddaramaiah and Sriramulu, on the other hand, are perceived as ‘migratory birds', who, having contested from two seats each, may ditch them even if elected.

Come counting day, in the not-so-unlikely scenario of Hanumanth Mavinamarad emerging as a giant-killer, Badami will surely be on everybody’s lips.

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