Karnataka Polls: Mysuru all set for battle royale as the heavy artillery rolls in

While both parties will have to work hard, it seems the BJP may have an uphill battle in holding on to its seats.

In the three urban constituencies of Mysuru city, the hub of the erstwhile princely state of Mysore, the fight is between Congress and BJP to retain their seats. This is unlike the majority of the remaining eight rural constituencies of Mysuru district, where the fight is largely between the Congress and the JD (S), as the BJP is yet to make an impact in the region.

In the last elections of May 2018, the urban electorate favoured BJP in Chamaraja and Krishnaraja constituencies, and the Congress in the Muslim-dominated Narasimharaja constituency. While both parties will have to work hard, it seems BJP may have an uphill battle in holding on to its seats.

The party faces anti-incumbency and severe corruption charges, apart from having to stave off a potential consolidation of backward class votes around Siddaramaiah’s ‘last’ outing, and a split in Lingayat votes towards Congress, not to mention the minority votes in its adversary’s favour.

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This has seen a number of BJP leaders sweep into the region. Prime Minister Modi himself is due to undertake a road show in the city — no public meetings have been announced yet — touching all three constituencies on Sunday 30th April. The situation has also witnessed a frantic bid by the BJP to woo the Vokkaliga voters in the region, with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visiting the neighbouring Vokkaliga-dominated Mandya district.

“But it will not have any impact among the Vokkaligas of the city. It may have some impact among the voters of Mandya with their (independent) MP, Sumalatha Ambareesh, joining the BJP,” says Sumesh Gowda of Chamaraja constituency. Sumalatha Ambareesh is the first independent woman MP from Karnataka.

New face in the fray

All three constituencies form part of the eight assembly segments of the Mysuru Lok Sabha seat. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Prathap Simha won the Mysuru Lok Sabha seat with a margin of 1,38,647 votes, defeating CH Vijayashankar of Congress.

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In Krishnaraja, Srivatsa TS, the Mysore city BJP President, will make his electoral debut and try to retain the constituency for the party, while M K Somashekara, the two-time Congress MLA, is making an all-out effort to wrest it. Mallesh K V, a three-time local councillor from JD (S), is also making a bid.

In this Brahmin-dominated constituency, the BJP denied a ticket to the sitting four-time MLA, SA Ramdas, after even the Brahmana Sabha came out openly against him.

While Ramdas himself has come out in support of party candidate Srivatsa TS, he has refused to meet any party leaders after he was denied the ticket. It will be interesting to see whether Ramdas, who is close to PM Modi, will be seen with him during Sunday’s roadshow.

In 2018, Ramadas won the seat defeating M K Somashekar by a margin of 26,347 votes. Brahmins comprise 30 percent of the 2,48,564-strong electorate of the constituency. Will denying him a ticket impact the poll outcome?

“No, Sir. It will not have any impact. Here it is more about the Party than about the individual”, said Shivaputrappa, a resident of Krishnaraja constituency.

A battle of perceptions

Sitting BJP MLA L Nagendra, who has a clean, educated image, seeks to retain the Chamaraja constituency staving off the challenge from K Harish Gowda of the Congress, who is seen as an 'unpolished', albeit popular, personality.

In this Vokkaliga (25 percent) dominated seat, the Congress candidate’s fortunes depends to a large extent on the votes Malavika Gubbivani (AAP) and HK Ramesh (JD-S) manage to poll, not to mention the consolidation of the 8 percent Kuruba vote.

Congress won the seat in 2013, while BJP won it in 2018. Favouring Nagendra is his hard-working image, having been among the people and responded to their demands during his current tenure.

The SDPI Factor

Sitting MLA Tanveer Sait (Congress) of Narasimharaja constituency, elected to office for five consecutive terms, faces the charge of being a ‘missing MLA’. “He was never around in the constituency,” says Mumtaaz.

Sait faces a tough challenge from Abdul Majeed of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). Majeed had come third during the 2018 polls securing 33,284 votes, behind BJP’s Sandesh Swamy with 44,141. Sait had won the polls with a margin of 18,127 votes.

But between 2018 and now, Sait has survived a grievous attack by a person said to be affiliated with the SDPI, and thus enjoys the sympathy factor, though the SDPI has also managed to get into the good books of the people by working among them and helping them during the Covid outbreak.

For Sandesh Swamy of the BJP, this can be a make-or-break election, if he fails for the second time.

“If the BJP does not make it this time, they will never win from the constituency,” says Puttaswamy.