Age and ill health were said to be the main factors behind BS Yediyurappa’s resignation as chief minister in 2021, but the then CM was also questioned over his style of functioning, with some in the party doubting his leadership. One of the main reasons behind Yeddyurappa leaving the chair was that infighting in the party was at its peak.
Bommai, who replaced him, was considered his man, working in his shadow. He could not control the problems that BJP Karnataka was facing. Corruption, infighting and reputation management remained issues that eventually reflected in the party’s poor performance in the assembly elections.
The Congress launched a concerted campaign to highlight his allegations of corruption. Along with rallies and road shows, it launched a website on the alleged corrupt practices of Bommai’s government which resonated well on the ground. The website https://www.40percentsarkara.com says that so far 5,34,642 voices have raised their grievances against the corrupt practices of the BJP government. The efforts of Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar, and G Parameshwara were supported by Rahul Gandhi’s 500 km road trip over 24 days covering eight districts in September-October 2022 as part of his Bharat Jodi Yatra.
The BJP pinned its hopes on former CM Yediyurappa, but failed to build a counter-narrative against the Congress’s allegations and the four-year anti-incumbency wave against its government.
BJP has always depended on Lingayat votes in the state. This time, it tried to add Vokkaliga support to its vote base, the Bommai-led government extended caste-based reservation for them, and the party launched an intense wave of campaigning in the Vokkaliga community-dominated Old Mysore region.
The result shows that no community supported BJP in this election. While Lingayats have traditionally been supporters of the BJP, the Vokkaliga vote is divided between the Congress and the JD(S).
The BJP saw a series of Lingayat leaders leaving the party, led by former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi. Both joined the Congress. On caste-based reservation issues, the Panchamasali Lingayats, who constitute about 60% of the Lingayat population in Karnataka, were not happy with the changes made and have been demanding that the BJP government come up with a 15% reservation category and they have protested. This.
The counting data shows that the BJP lost the votes of the Lingayat community significantly and the Vokkaligas failed to attract people. And here BJP’s loss became Congress’s gain.
There are 67 Lingayat dominated seats in the state. In 2018, the BJP won 40 of them. This year, the tally was almost half that. The Congress won 42 seats, 22 more than its previous tally.
Of the 38 Vokkaliga-dominated seats, the BJP won nine, equaling its 2018 tally. The Congress got 19 seats, up 11 from its 2018 catch. Through DK Shivakumar, a prominent Vokkaliga leader and a contender for the post of Chief Minister, the Congress has made a significant dent in the votes of the Janata Dal (Secular). The HD Kumaraswamy-led party won only nine of these seats, which means it has lost 12 seats compared to 2018.
Members of the Vokkaliga community preferred to go with a larger party this time, with Shivakumar as the CM candidate from the community. The JD(S) is a very small party, confined to the old Mysuru region, and plays the role of kingmaker in case of a hung assembly scenario.
The Congress tried to tap into the Lingayat and Vokkaliga votes in its “OBC + Dalit + Minority” strategy and it worked well, the results show, even though Jagadish Shettar, contesting on its ticket, lost. Along with Shivakumar, the party has another big OBC face as its leader. Siddaramaiah, who was chief minister from 2013 to 2018, belongs to the Kuruba caste, which constitutes 7% of Karnataka’s population.