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Journalism of Courage
A strong Lingayat base and a former Congress stronghold that the BJP breached in 2018, Gundlupet has turned out to be a cause of concern for the ruling party ahead of the May 10 elections. The party is facing anti-incumbency in the constituency and a few of its local leaders have rebelled, with one even contesting as an Independent.
Gundlupet, in Chamarajanagar district, is a gateway to both Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is known as the “land of tigers” and houses the Bandipur national tiger reserve. In his first campaign stop in the Assembly seat on Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a three-km roadshow in Gundlupet town that lasted for nearly two hours. “Internal survey reports have been disappointing for the party. It has been noted by the central leadership. The roadshow was held to retain the Lingayat vote base, a decider in the constituency,” said a local BJP leader.
Gundlupet was synonymous with five-time legislator H S Mahadeva Prasad who won the seat for the Janata Dal, and subsequently the Janata Dal (United) and the Janata Dal (Secular), from 1994 onwards. After Siddaramaiah left the JD(S) in 2005, Prasad followed him to the Congress. As a result, the JD(S) collapsed in Gundlupet and the BJP’s rise began in the seat. After Prasad died in 2017, his wife MC Mohan Kumari won the bypoll but the following year the BJP’s Niranjan Kumar won the constituency for the party for the first time.
While the BJP has fielded Niranjan Kumar again, the Congress has given the ticket to Mahadeva Prasad’s son Ganesh and the JD(S) has fielded the incumbent legislator’s former associate Kadabur Manjunath. Another of Kumar’s former aides, M P Sunil, is contesting as an Independent candidate. Of the constituency’s 2.09 lakh voters, 40% are Lingayats, followed by 25% Scheduled Caste (SC) voters, and 10% Kurubas who belong to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. Given the Lingayat dominance in the seat, all three major candidates are from the community.
Said JD(S) worker Mahadev Prasad, “We, including me, voted for the BJP last time but things went the other way. Niranjan Kumar who fought against crushers in the forests started the same business and he became inaccessible.” The party’s candidate, Manjunath, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the MLA last time but left the party after he was sidelined. Though the JD(S) does not have a winning chance, Mahadev Prasad said Manjunath could cut into BJP votes.
Like Manjunath, the party also alienated Sunil who did not receive its support when contesting elections to the Chamarajanagar District Cooperative Milk Producers Societies Union Limited (CHAMUL). In the end, he managed to win as an Independent.
Asked about his party’s candidate, Congress worker Girish H S said Ganesh had been working in the constituency for the last three-and-a-half years and had a lot of public goodwill. “More than the BJP, people are against the candidate (Niranjan Kumar),” he said.
The BJP’s district president R Sundar dismissed reports of anti-incumbency and said the MLA would be voted back. “Yes, it’s true that Manjunath and Sunil quit the party. Led by minister V Somanna, we made attempts to convince Sunil to withdraw his nomination. However, he wants to go ahead. The drinking water schemes of the central and state government have yielded results in the constituency. The Amit Shah event on Monday also elicited a great response,” he said.
Voters’ concerns
Healthcare is an issue that continues to figure among voters’ concerns. At the height of the Covid19 pandemic, 36 patients admitted to the Chamarajanagar district hospital died because of a shortage of oxygen supply.
Among those who lost their kin was Shivanna, a villager from Nenekatte in Gundlupet. Shivanna said he developed an interest in politics after the death of his father because of “state negligence” and was now working for the Congress. “I lost my father due to the state’s negligence. While the district administration and local MLA continue to ignore us, compensation was distributed to 26 families but not to all. The Congress gave us Rs 1 lakh. We do not want the present MLA to continue,” he said.
Gundlupet also has a sizable tribal population. Those who live near the National Highway seem to be better off compared to tribals living in haadis (hamlets). Several have moved to Kerala to work at coffee estates there. At the Kalavani haadi near Gundlupet town, 25-year-old Kongalli’s family was the only family left, with the rest having moved to Kerala. “We do not have electricity and there is no proper drinking water supply. Also, there is no consistent earning. We either work in fields for Rs 300 a day or work as forest watchers during summer to douse fires. Otherwise, most go to Kerala to look for livelihood.”
