How civil society orgs played key role in Congress' big win

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Apart from the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, a 4000 kilometerlong march on foot across the country, it was the coming together of like-minded people and civil society organisations (CSO) that played a key role in ousting the BJP's hate ideology.

A flock of around 5,000 volunteers belonging to more than 112 different organisations formed a movement which was called, "Eddelu Karnataka" (Wake Up Karnataka) with a common aim to fight against the ideology of hatred and bigotry in the state. "We had been discussing the unity factor for more than two years. However there was very little time before the elections when we started," a teacher and an activist with Eddelu Karnataka said. In the last six months, the forum achieved what was earlier thought to be difficult.

Kannada writer and activist Devanuru Mahadeva said that the objective of the forum was to ensure that the BJP government is defeated, more than worrying about who will win the elections. "We will still continue our fight for the betterment of the public," he added. As part of the campaign, the forum had conducted a series of zonal, district and constituency level workshops, a month before the elections, conducting almost 110 workshops.

The campaign also released a booklet exposing BJP’s misrule and 2 songs for the campaign. As Yogendra Yadav while speaking to News Trail earlier had pointed out that the decisive victory for Congress in Karnataka will open the door of hope to the entire opposition in the country. The BJP was stunned after it lost the one and only state it had in the southern part of the nation.

Later as the politicians were busy trying to woo the voters, a mega pre-poll survey was conducted between March 13 and April 21 by a Kannada media outlet, Eedina, which correctly predicted the Congress' vote percentage at 43 percent. Miffed with the reports, the BJP leaders had called it a bogus. According to Basavaraj, a teacher and an activist who was actively involved in the survey, almost 33 percent of the respondents considered the Basavaraj Bommai-led government to be the most corrupt in recent times.

"The sample size was the largest among different surveys at 41,169, during which we recorded some major findings. The people were unhappy with the government," he added. The Dalit factions, farmers and the splinter groups were greatly concerned that their communities have been divided over personal issues, and ideological differences. The effort to bring the factions together started with the ‘Dalithara Samskruthika Prathirodha’ on December 6, 2022, which joined Eddelu Karnataka later.

Indidhar Honnapura, coordinator of a 14-member committee called the Dalitha Sangharsha Samithigala Aikya Horata Chalana Samiti, which include activists from the DSS, said, "We approached the Dalit voters with a specific agenda and tried to convince them not to vote for the BJP or the Janata Dal (Secular). The community was feeling insecure after several cultural and legal challenges that were thrown at by the BJP government," he said.

Soon other groups such as Bahutva Karnataka, Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, State Trade Unions, OBC Federation, Muslim an Christian organisations, worked in coordination with the Eddelu Karnataka team.

They enrolled more than 1.5 lakh votes. Congress hugely benefited from this venture at the grassroot level. Eddelu Karnataka’s sole aim was to deliver three messages "Votes should not be wasted," "Votes should not be divided" and "Vote for the candidate who can defeat the BJP."

"Politics itself had sunked to an unprecedented low. We had to find a solutionbased reality," Yusuf Kanni, a teacher by profession, told News Trail. "It was the high time for the people in Karnataka to stand with each other and reclaim the Constitution, and realise what a truly great republic we stand to lose if we choose to remain silent," said Vinay Kumar, an activist.

Campaigning for voter awareness, the forum pointed out that the enrollment of voters was of prime importance. Due to the efforts of the volunteers, more than 1 lakh 58 thousand voters including 1,10,000 Muslims and 48,000 Christians were reenrolled, who were missing from the voters list.

The Karnataka election results stand testimony to the fact that this foundation can't be destroyed that easily by the forces of hatred and bigotry. In that sense the return of the Congress also means the return of Indian Republic and Indian democracy, activists from the forum said.