BJP Karnataka list takeaways: Hindutva poster boy out, second chance for two

The BJP, which won 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in 2019, earlier announced a first list of 20 candidates, with nine changes of candidates. The BJP is in an alliance with the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka and is expected to leave the three constituencies of Mandya, Hassan, and Kolar vacant for the JD(S) to field its candidates. The party has yet to announce a candidate for Chitradurga, which is reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.

Hegde dropped

In a major change, the BJP dropped Anantkumar Hegde, a five-time MP from Uttara Kannada, and has replaced him with former Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kaggeri, 62.

Both Hegde, 55, and Kaggeri are from the Brahmin community and rely on the hardcore Hindutva politics of coastal Karnataka to carry the day in elections. Hegde has been a poster boy of Hindutva in Karnataka and his political rise was linked to the Ram Mandir movement in the 1990s.

The BJP won Uttara Kannada in 2019 with a resounding margin of 4.79 lakh votes. Hegde has however been a source of embarrassment for the BJP in recent times with his public statements on changing the Constitution if the BJP wins a big majority this year.

Hegde, who became an MP for the first time from Uttara Kannada at 28 years old in 1996, has not been in active politics for over three years after being afflicted by a serious illness. In early January, he emerged from inactivity with attacks on Karnataka Congress CM Siddaramaiah and hardline Hindutva statements suggesting a keenness to run for Parliament again.

Hegde’s absence from politics for three years has been questioned by party workers in BJP meetings held in several villages in the Uttara Kannada constituency in recent months. “What have you done for us? What development has happened?” a party worker asked at a recent party meeting in Belagavi district, parts of which come under the Uttara Kannada seat.

Jagadish Shettar gets ticket

The BJP has announced the candidature of veteran leader and former CM Jagadish Shettar, 68, from Belgaum in place of Mangala Angadi, whose daughter is married to Shettar’s son.

Shettar was wooed back to the BJP in January after he left the party in April 2023 and joined the Congress for being denied a ticket from the Hubbali region for the Assembly polls in May 2023. Shettar who belongs to the dominant Lingayat community is expected to face an uphill task in retaining Belgaum for the BJP.

He faces Mrunal Hebbalkar, the young son of the Congress minister for women and child development Lakshmi Hebbalkar, 48, a member of the Panchamasali sub-sect of the Lingayats that has been up in arms against the BJP with a demand for OBC quotas.

Shettar had been sulking after the BJP’s first list of 20 candidates did not feature his name. He was hoping for the Dharwad or Haveri seat as possibilities as well. He was however later convinced by BJP member of national executive B S Yediyurappa that he would be fielded from the Belgaum seat. Shettar was wooed back to the BJP in January this year with the promise of being fielded for the parliament polls.

Following the death of its four-time Belgaum MP Suresh Angadi, the BJP fielded Angadi’s widow Mangala Angadi in the 2021 bypoll and she managed a narrow 5,240-vote win on a sympathy wave over the Congress’s local strongman Sathish Jarkiholi.

The performance of Mangala Angadi as an MP and the loss of ground by the BJP in Belagavi with the deaths of other Lingayat stalwarts in the region such as Umesh Katti, Anand Mamani and the exit of the former deputy CM Laxman Savadi to the Congress has put the BJP on a shaky wicket ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in the region with sizable Lingayat votes, Shettar’s son Sankalp Shettar is married to former BJP MP Suresh Angadi and Mangala Angadi’s daughter Shradha Angadi.

K Sudhakar for Chikkaballapur

Despite strong reservations within a section of the BJP about the candidature of former minister K Sudhakar from Chikkaballapur, the BJP has fielded the former health minister. Sudhakar is considered to be close to the former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai and the BJP national organisation secretary B L Santhosh.

Sudhakar who is a doctor by education is considered to have the deep pockets required to fight Chikkaballapur, which has in recent times been represented by the Congress’s veteran Veerappa Moily and the BJP’s B N Bache Gowda. Gowda, 81, is the sitting MP and has announced his exit from the poll fray but is considered to be unhappy with the BJP.

Alok Vishwanath, the young son of a BJP leader from Bengaluru, S R Vishwanath, who also has deep pockets had been seeking the Chikkaballapur ticket but the BJP decided in the favour of Sudhakar who has rallied the support of the BJP ally the JD(S) and its leaders, especially former CM H D Kumaraswamy who has a say in local politics.