Shock in BJP over loss of two graduate seats

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT
Bengaluru

It took nearly four decades for the Congress Party to win the South Graduates’ constituency which had been held by both BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) for many years. While BJP had won from this constituency for three terms and the rest two terms by the JDS.

But the Congress Party broke the jinx with the resounding victory of Madhu Madegowda, a son of former Mandya MP, late G. Madegowda. At the same time, this has come as a shocker for both BJP and JDS for having conceded this seat to the Congress Party. The ruling BJP seems to have taken the result of this constituency lighting without bothering to make an introspection.

In fact, the BJP has lost two seats in two constituencies, North West Teachers and South Graduates, which had been considered as the safe citadel of the saffron party. The complacency, arrogance and unhappiness over the selection of candidates resulted in the defeat of BJP in those constituencies. If this election rout is not taken seriously by the state BJP leadership then they would have to pay a heavy price in the 2023 Assembly polls.

The selection of M.V. Ravishankar as BJP candidate for South Graduates’ constituency was not liked by many since it had been done by none other than the BJP National Organising Secretary B.L. Santosh, a bete noire of former CM B.S. Yediyurappa.

The ticket aspirant, G.Madhusudhan, had identified himself in the Yediyurappa camp and that became a negative point for him from getting a ticket. In fact, Ravishnakar had lost by around 150 votes in the 2016 Council Polls and since then Madhusudhan had prevailed upon the state leaders to give him a ticket.

Following the change in guard in the State, Yediyurappa was replaced by Basavaraja Bommai who did not have any say in the selection of candidates for the Council polls. The local BJP MLAs campaigned half-heartedly for Ravishankar and this helped Madhu romp home. Despite the whirlwind campaign by Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai and other ministers, the BJP lost this seat mainly due to groupism.

Concerted efforts

On the other hand, the Congress Party fought this election in a united manner with all defeated Assembly candidates, N. Cheluvarayaswamy, P.M. Narendraswamy and the incumbent MLC Dinesh Guligowda working tirelessly for the victory of their candidate. In addition, the Congress candidate got timely help from the miffed JDS MLC Maritibbegowda, who openly campaigned against his own party candidate H.K. Ramu claiming that the latter was an outsider.

The reason for this volteface had been denial of ticket for his supporter by the JDS supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and H.D. Kumaraswamy. Naturally, the traditional JDS votes got transferred to Madhu. Even the BJP votes too have gone in favor of the Congress Party due to infighting among local leaders.

The Congress leaders led by Siddaramaiah and D.K.Shivakumar spent many days campaigning in four districts, Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar and Hassan which helped the graduate voters to support Madhu. The defeated BJP candidate was still perplexed over non-transfering of traditional BJP votes for him and felt cheated. The JDS was not in a mood for introspection as it was more interested in winning 123 seats in the 2023 Assembly polls.

Photo row

Did the absence of a picture of former CM and BJP lingayat leader B.S. Yediyurappa in the banner proved costly for Ravishankar. He admitted before the media that he was not at all aware of not putting the picture of Yediyurappa in the banner at a campaign organised by workers.

It came to his notice after the media highlighted the absence of Yediyurappa’s photo in the banner and claimed that the BJP has sidelined him. “I am not at all responsible for it. But I fear it may be one of the reasons for my defeat.”