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Bangalore: Elections to three municipal corporations in Karnataka, seen as a “sample test” of newly appointed Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, have yielded mixed results, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) securing a clear majority in Belagavi and its own in Kalaburagi. There has been a marked improvement in the situation. . However, the results of Hubli Dharwad municipal elections have come as a disappointment for the ruling party, as it fell short of a majority.
Elections to the three municipal corporations were first held in March 2013, but the elections were postponed, first due to a delimitation process and then due to the COVID pandemic.
Bommai, former CM Jagadish Shettar and Union minister Pralhad Joshi are all from Hubballi Dharwad region, and the BJP was hoping to get a clear majority in the municipal elections.
The results could also upset the Congress, as Asaduddin Owaisi joining the AIMIM race is expected to hurt the opposition party’s prospects in Kalaburagi and Hubballi Dharwad.
“It was like testing a sample of election performance a month after I took over as chief minister. Of the three corporations, we have a clear majority in one and we will manage a majority in the other two. All the three corporations will have BJP mayors,” said CM Bommai, feeling relieved while addressing the media on Monday.
Later, he left for Delhi on a two-day visit, during which he is expected to discuss the results of urban local body elections with the party high command and meet Union ministers regarding central schemes and projects in the state.
What happened in Hubli Dharwad?
In BJP stronghold Hubli Dharwad, it managed to win only 39 seats out of 82. Before the delimitation of this corporation, which resulted in an increase in the number of seats from 67 to 83, the BJP had 33 out of 67 seats, while the Congress had 22, the JD(S) 9.
BS Yediyurappa’s KJP, which merged with the BJP in 2014, won one seat, while independents won two. This time, the Congress has taken a lead on 33 seats, while the AIMIM has won three and the JD(S) one.
While senior leaders like Shettar refused to join Basavaraj Bommai’s cabinet citing “self-respect”, the former CM’s supporters in Hubballi Dharwad had also made no secret of their dismay.
When ThePrint asked Hubballi Dharwad West MLA Arvind Belad whether he and Shettar’s supporters had hurt the party’s prospects, he denied it.
“There is a clear outpouring of support for Bommai from everyone. We didn’t perform as well as we thought because of two things. One, about 20-25 per cent of our voters could not cast their votes due to discrepancies in the electoral rolls. Two, there were too many candidates and those who did not get tickets, they contested as independents,” Bellad said.
Professor Narendra Pani, political analyst and dean at the School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, said he wondered whether there was a “huge negative sentiment against the BJP”.
“As a party in power, the number of leaders they have (from Hubballi Dharwad), the BJP should have been swept away in the corporation, but it did not,” he said. Belagavi seems to have been transferred to the BJP, with the AIMIM’s participation in Kalaburagi benefiting the party.
Effect of exit from BSY on Lingayat vote
All three corporations that go to polls – Kalaburagi, Belagavi and Hubli Dharwad – are strongholds of the Lingayat community. In Kalaburagi, Lingayats form the largest number of voters, followed by minorities, while in Belagavi, it is Marathas, and in Hubli Dharwad, it is OBCs and minorities.
The biggest concern for the BJP around Yeddyurappa’s exit was to gauge the mood of the Lingayat community, and if its unwavering support to the party would change. The party has won 35 of the 58 seats in Belagavi, which will address such concerns to some extent. In Belagavi, Congress won 10 seats while AIMIM won one seat.
In Lingayat and Muslim-majority Kalburgi, the BJP was barely four seats behind the Congress, which previously held the corporation. Out of 55 seats, Congress won 27 seats, while BJP won 23 seats, eight more than last time.
All elected representatives, including local MLAs, MLCs and MPs, get one vote each to elect mayors for municipal corporations. For example, in Kalaburagi, the BJP has won 23 seats, but has 5 MLAs and an MLC, taking its total vote share in the mayoral election to 28, while the Congress has won 27 seats and has one MLA and one MP. Is. 29. No party has enough numbers to claim majority, and hence, they are looking at JD(S) and independent candidates.
“We are still the single largest party, and with the combined votes of our MLAs and MPs, we will widen the gap. The JD(S) has four candidates and one independent has won, and we hope to win their support,” Priyank Kharge, Congress MLA from Chittapur in Kalaburagi, told ThePrint.
AIMIM’s winning debut
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) has managed to win four seats in its first municipal election in Karnataka – one in Belagavi and three in Hubli Dharwad. Interestingly, all these seats were previously held by the Congress, giving rise to the party’s suspicion that Asaduddin Owaisi’s party is playing “bad”.
The AIMIM, based in Hyderabad in neighboring Telangana, had earlier contested the municipal council elections, but this time it has fielded 11 candidates in Hubli, Dharwad, six in Belagavi and 21 in Kalaburagi.
Speaking to ThePrint, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Salim Ahmed alleged, “If the intention of AIMIM is to win elections, we welcome it, but its primary function is to help the BJP by dividing Congress votes. “
The AIMIM leaders, however, vehemently rejected the Congress allegation that they are the “B team” of the BJP.
“The Congress has for decades treated minority and Dalit votes as their assets without giving them representation or power. We at AIMIM are against the BJP brand politics as well as the Congress. Our slogan is Jai Bhim-Jai Meem,” party state president Usman Ghani told ThePrint.
Now, the AIMIM intends to contest at least 50 of the 224 assembly seats in the state when Karnataka goes to polls in 2023.
“We will contest from Bidar, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Koppal, Vijayapura, Belagavi assembly constituencies,” Ghani said. In all these areas, there is a direct contest between the Congress and the BJP.
Congress’s Priyank Kharge said, “While AIMIM has not won any seat in Kalaburgi, Congress has lost some seats by a margin of nine votes or 23 votes.” He said the Congress would study the vote split to assess the scenario.
Meanwhile, Karnataka BJP general secretary N. Ravi Kumar told ThePrint: “AIMIM doesn’t bother us. In fact, they are not a threat to the BJP because the seats they field their candidates are seats that the BJP will not win because of the demographics. Whether AIMIM dents Congress’s vote share or not, it doesn’t matter to BJP.
(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)
Read also: Senior Karnataka BJP leaders are upset over Amit Shah’s nod to one-month-old CM Bommai for 2023
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