In Dharwad roiled by a murder, Pralhad Joshi eyes fifth term amid Lingayat rumblings, ‘anti-incumbency’

Joshi is pitted against the Congress’s Vinod Asooti, a 34-year-old OBC leader. The Congress has fielded a non-Lingayat candidate in Dharwad for the first time since 1998, when it had put up Dyamappa Kallappa Naikar.

The situation in the constituency took a turn after April 18 when the daughter of the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation’s Congress councillor Niranjan Hiremath, Neha Hiremath, a 23-year-old MCA student, was stabbed to death on her college campus, allegedly by her former classmate Fayaz Khondunaik, 23, who was arrested after the incident.

In its campaign since, the BJP has been raking up this incident as a case of “love jihad”. The

hoardings of Neha, seeking “justice” for her, have been put up on all the key roads and junctions of the Hubballi-Dharwad belt.

Top BJP leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party national president J P Nadda besides Joshi, have visited Hiremath’s residence, even as senior Congress leaders, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, have also met the family.

The Congress government, while ordering a CID probe into the incident, has said the murder was over “personal matters”. The Dharwad-based Muslim organisation Anjuman-e-Islam, which has also held protests to seek justice for Neha, has downplayed the “love jihad” allegation.

A resident of Hubballi, Ramesh Kulkarni, said this was a “case of love that went horribly wrong”. He said, “It may however not be a factor when we vote. We will need a strong government for the country and we will vote for it.”

In his election rallies, Joshi has kept the focus on the BJP’s ideological issues — including the scrapping of Article 370, the Congress’s alleged “minority appeasement” and Modi’s “accomplishments” — while regional issues like drought and the Mahadayi river dispute have been put on the back burner.

The Congress campaign is being managed by district in-charge minister and party firebrand Santosh Lad.

What has given Joshi a distinct edge is the point that Asooti is a lightweight Congress leader whose “visibility” in the constituency is not considered significant.

A Congress leader however said, “Our party has a chance to get votes in rural areas like Navalgund, Shiggaon and Kalhatagi. There are more than 50% Muslim voters in Hubballi east which can also swing towards Congress.”

However, in a jolt to the Congress, its senior regional leader Vinay Kulkarni has been barred from entering Dharwad district for his alleged involvement in a murder case.

In the constituency, Lingayats and Muslims are considered as “game changers”, accounting for about 25% and 23% voters respectively.

What has come as a setback to Joshi is a campaign being undertaken by a local Lingayat seer Fakir Dingaleshwar Swami from the Shirahatti Fakireshwar Math, one of the influential regional maths, who is demanding that the BJP replace the former with a Lingayat face.

Alleging that Joshi, a Brahmin leader, has ignored the concerns of the Lingayat community, Dingaleshwar Swami also filed his nomination from the constituency as an Independent candidate, which he withdrew later. He has however continued his campaign against Joshi.

A BJP leader admitted that there has been local resentment against Joshi, especially in the Lingayat community. He cited the instance of Dharwad BJP veteran Jagadish Shettar, Lingayat leader and ex-CM, who quit the party ahead of the May 2023 Assembly elections, but returned to its fold four months ago and is contesting now on its ticket from Belagavi. “The way Jagadish Shettar and some other Lingayat leaders have been sidelined in the BJP in the Dharwad region is an issue. But we need to see how it plays out,” the BJP leader said.

The BJP has also faced embarrassment over the sex abuse allegations which have now surfaced against its ally JD(S)’s Hassan MP and candidate Prajwal Revanna, grandson of ex-PM H D Deve Gowda, although the party has distanced itself from him.

A stronghold of the Congress since Independence, the Dharwad seat was won by the BJP in the 1996 polls in the wake of the riots in Hubballi following the national flag hoisting at Idgah Maidan, which created a narrative of Hindutva sentiments leading to the BJP’s dominance in the region. “That episode became a platform for several BJP leaders to emerge, including Pralhad Joshi, late Anant Kumar and others,” said a party worker.

Dharwad is going to polls on May 7. Of its eight Assembly segments, the Congress and the BJP won four each in the 2023 Assembly polls.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Joshi had defeated the Congress’s Vinay Kulkarni from the constituency by over 2 lakh votes.