In a spectacular performance, the Congress bagged 26 seats out of 41 in Kalyana Karnataka in the 2023 Assembly Elections, leaving 10 for the BJP and three for the Janata Dal (Secular) and two for others.
After the 2021 byelections, the BJP slightly had an upper hand with 19 seats over the Congress which had 18. The JD(S) held four seats. The Congress expanded its base by bagging eight more seats in the region this time.
The most impressive performance for the Congress came from Ballari district where the grand old party won all five segments. The next inspiring performance for the Congress came from Kalaburagi district, the home turf of All-India Congress Committee president M. Mallikarjun Kharge, where the party won seven seats out of nine, leaving two seats for the BJP.
In Bidar district, it won two seats leaving the other four for the BJP. In Raichur, it won four seats leaving two for the BJP and one for the JD(S). In Koppal it won three leaving one for the BJP and the other for the Karnataka Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP) of Gali Janardhan Reddy. In Vijayanagara, it won two seats leaving one each for the BJP, the JD(S), and an Independent candidate.
Kharge and Article 371(J) factors
After Mr. Kharge assumed office as AICC president, there was a fresh enthusiasm among the Congress leaders and cadres across the region. On the other hand, it had also mounted pressure on Mr. Kharge to prove his leadership in the region where he hailed from.
Mr. Kharge spent considerable time campaigning for the Congress candidates and meticulously planning for their victories in the region before the elections.
The Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mr. Khage and a host of local leaders, never forgot to highlight how the demand for Article 371(J) for giving special status to the region, was suppressed by the BJP when it was in power at the Centre.
They made it a norm to repeatedly stress throughout the poll campaign that it was the Congress government that fulfilled the long-pending demand when it was in power at the Centre.
The BJP attempted to counter it by showing that it had increased the annual grants to KKRDB from ₹1,500 crore given by the Congress government to ₹3,000 crore, and then to ₹5,000 crore in the recent Budget. However, that did not work well.
BJP’s religious polarisation
The BJP also tried its best to polarise Hindu votes in its favour by raising the issues of Ladle Mashak Dargah at Aland in Kalaburagi district and Anjanadri Hills in Koppal district. The saffron party, along with other right-wing outfits such as Sri Ram Sene, tried to mobilise the Hindu youth in Kalaburagi district in the name of “liberating Raghav Chaitanya Shivaling”, allegedly present in the dargah.
But it did not work well. It could not even retain the Aland constituency, where the dargah is situated. The Congress’ B.R. Patil defeated the BJP’s sitting MLA Subhash Guttedar in Aland. Of the nine segments in the Kalaburagi district, the Congress won seven.
It also announced many development projects for developing Anjanadri Hills, which is believed to be the “birthplace” of Lord Hanuman. A few months before the elections, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had launched development works to be taken up at a cost of ₹125 crore at Anjanadri.
All the BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP State unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who visited the region, did mention Anjanadri in their public speeches.
After the Congress released its manifesto in which it assured of taking stringent action, including banning organisations such as the Bajrang Dal, the BJP aggressively attempted to attack the Congress terming Bajrang Dal activists as the followers of Hanuman. Mr. Modi himself was at the forefront by stating that the Congress was attempting to lock up Lord Hanuman.
All their efforts to polarise the Hindu votes using Anjanadri went in vain. The BJP could not even retain the Gangawati segment where the holy place is situated and Vijayanagara, the neighbouring segment.
Mr. Reddy of the KRPP won Gangawati defeating the BJP’s sitting MLA Paranna Munavalli and the Congress candidate H.R. Gaviyappa won Vijayanagara defeating the BJP candidate Siddarth Singh.
