Ahead of the 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls, the Congress is trying to shore up its defenses, especially in constituencies where it lost MLAs to the BJP's 2019 “Operation Kamala” — in which, Congress MLAs had switched over to become ministers in the BJP government that toppled the then ruling Congress-JDS coalition — by importing seasoned warhorses from the BJP. One of its early catches is a former BJP MLA from the Yellapur constituency in Uttara Kannada, as replacement for its two-term MLA Arabail Shivaram Hebbar, who switched to the BJP in 2019 and is now the state labour minister. V S Patil, who joined the Congress on Thursday, was last elected to the Karnataka Assembly in 2008, when he had defeated Hebbar by 2,485 votes. Patil had lost the two subsequent polls in 2013 and 2018 to Hebbar, by a margin of 24,492 votes and 1,483 votes, respectively. He did not contest the 2019 bypoll, for which Hebbar was the BJP candidate and had registered a comfortable win by 31,000 votes over his Congress rival Bhimanna Naik. Patil, a Lingayat, was inducted into the Congress along with another BJP leader from the region, Srinivas Bhat, a businessman, by the Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar. Bhat is a Brahmin. The Yellapur constituency has a large population of Brahmins and of backward castes. Current BJP MLA Arabail Shivaram Hebbar is a Brahmin. If the BJP gives Hebbar the Yellapur ticket, the Congress is banking on strong anti-incumbency against the state labour minister to win it back in 2023. “V S Patil has worked with us in the state Assembly. He was given a prize for being an outstanding legislator. His father was a block Congress president. After our Congress MLA joined the BJP (in 2019), many BJP leaders in the region have turned to the Congress,” Shivakumar said, adding that Patil had been inducted after consulting the Congress leadership in Yellapur and the Uttara Kannada region. Patil's induction into the Congress comes on the heels of last month's induction of former Hirekerur MLA and Lingayat leader U G Banakar, who was forced to cede ground to the former Congress MLA B C Patil, when the latter switched to the BJP in 2019 along with 13 other Congress MLAs and three JDS MLAs. Banakar had lost the 2018 polls for the Hirekerur seat to B C Patil by a mere 555 votes. The policeman-turned-actor-turned-politician went on to become the state agriculture minister after switching over from the Congress in 2019, and winning the bypoll that was not contested by Banakar, a two-time MLA. Banakar, who is closely associated with the former Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa, had won the Hirekur seat in 2013, on a ticket from the Karnataka Janata Party that Yediyurappa had formed in 2012, after he had briefly left the BJP due to disgruntlement. The BJP suffered a major loss in 2013 after being in power in Karnataka from 2008 to 2013 due to the emergence of Yediyurappa's KJP. “Last month, the BJP leader from Hirekerur, U B Banakar, joined the Congress. There are many more leaders who are set to join the Congress, but some have sought time till the end of the winter session of the Assembly,” Shivakumar said. While the Congress is inducting BJP leaders in areas where its own MLAs had jumped ship, it is also looking at the possible return of some of the leaders who had switched over to the BJP in 2019. Congress sources said the party is keeping open the decision on candidates for those seats where defections had taken place, in the hope that the deserters, who are considered politically formidable, will return to the Congress fold nearer to April-May 2023, when the polls are scheduled. The BJP is also reportedly planning to deny tickets to some Congress and JDS turncoats for the 2023 polls, who they consider are more of a liability to the party than an asset. Among the Congress turncoats who are reportedly considering a return to the grand old party is the former minister A H Vishwanath from Hunsur, who lost the seat to the Congress's H P Manjunath in the 2019 Assembly bypoll. Vishwanath recently met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Siddaramaiah. The incumbent Congress MLA from Hunsur, H P Manjunath, is a close associate of Siddaramaiah.
