3:0 in Karnataka Bypolls Will Come as a Huge Relief to Siddaramaiah

Corruption and appeasement politics constituted the NDA's upfront attack on the Congress party in Karnataka. In the end, the Congress won all three bypoll seats and the NDA lost ground in constituencies that were considered to be strongholds.The Congress wrested Channapatna from the JD(S), with CP Yogeeshwara trouncing Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of Union minister HD Kumaraswamy, by a margin of 26,929 votes. This was Nikhil's third consecutive electoral defeat after he lost the Mandya Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and the Ramanagara Assembly seat in 2023.Former CM Basavaraj Bommai had fielded his son Bharath Bommai from Shiggaon in Haveri district (the former's constituency since 2008), who lost to the Congress' Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan by 13,446 votes.In Sandur, a reserved constituency that has been a Congress stronghold since 1957 with a break in 1985 and 2004, Congress MP E Tukaram's wife, E Annapoorna, defeated the BJP's Bangaru Hanumanthu by 9,568 votes.The bypolls turned out to be a proxy battle fought by the parties' main leaders on their home turf. In Channapatna, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar had declared that he is the Congress candidate, no matter who the party's nominee. In the same constituency, Kumaraswamy was fighting for his son.In Sandur, the tussle was between Labour Minister Santosh H Lad and G Janardhana Reddy, an Independent MLA and former mining czar. The Supreme Court on 3 October lifted a 15-year ban on Reddy to enter Ballari district due to his arrest over the illegal export of iron ore.In Shiggaon, Basavaraj Bommai was the face of his son. MUDA: Siddaramaiah is Confronting a Serious Challenge to His IntegrityThe 3:0 verdict is a shocker to the BJP and the JD(S). Both parties had claimed that these bypolls would be a referendum on the 18-month-old Siddaramaiah government, embroiled in an alleged multi-crore embezzlement of funds scam with the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, along with a case concerning irregularities in the allotment of sites by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in which Siddaramaiah's wife BM Parvathi was a beneficiary. She has decided to return the sites, but an inquiry by the Lokayukta is on, where the CM is the prime accused.Speaking to the media, Siddaramaiah said that the bypolls were a contest between the Congress party's fight for truth and the NDA's lies. "The opposition parties had indulged in a negative campaign against the government's programmes and me. Ultimately, truth triumphed," he asserted.In Channapatna, 60 km from Bengaluru, there was a tussle between the BJP and the JD(S) over the candidate selection. The BJP failed to get Yogeeshwara a ticket, who was with the saffron party until he joined the Congress, as Kumaraswamy was firm that the decision would be his because Channapatna is a JD(S) stronghold.The ticket was finally given to Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil, who heads the party's youth wing. Shivakumar and his brother DK Suresh, who lost the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha election to Kumaraswamy's brother-in-law, the noted cardiologist CN Manjunath, were quick to grab Yogeeshwara, a man with a history of switching parties.A veteran of nine electoral battles, it was a ghar wapsi for Yogeeshwara. He also had an axe to grind with Kumaraswamy along with the DK brothers. Yogeeshwara was defeated twice by Kumaraswamy from Channapatna in 2018 and 2023, while in 2013, he defeated Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha, and this time, his son Nikhil. Though Yogeeshwara and the DK brothers have been political foes, the enemy's enemy is a friend.In support of Nikhil, the union minister's entire clan stepped out to campaign, including the 92-year-old former PM HD Deve Gowda. A teary-eyed Nikhil urged voters to give him a chance after his two failed attempts. It was a high-decibel campaign in Channapatna, dominated by the Vokkaliga community, with Muslims also being a decisive factor.A racist comment by Minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan on Kumaraswamy caused jitters within the Congress party with apprehensions that the Vokkaliga community would boycott it. The results, however, indicate that the Congress managed to get Vokkaliga support but the biggest helping hand came from the Muslim community, who voted for it en masse. They had voted for Kumaraswamy in previous elections when he was not aligned with the BJP.In Sandur, the BJP's Scheduled Tribe Morcha chief and one-film actor Bangaru Hanumanthu did not live up to the title of his film Mana Mechida Bangaru (Bangaru who won hearts). The BJP tried to cash on the siphoning of funds from the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation as Sandur is a constituency reserved for the STs, but this did not work.Data: Has Jharkhand Become a Mountain Too Tall to Climb for the BJP?Shiggaon was a bonus seat. The Congress had not placed much hope in winning it as it was Basavaraj Bommai's bastion since 2008. A constituency dominated by the Panchamasali Lingayats (a subsect of the Lingayats), the community has historically favoured Bommai. The Congress even faced dissidence from ticket aspirant Syed Azeempeer Khadri, but Public Works Minister Satish L Jarkiholi, who was put in charge of the constituency, mobilised the AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes, and Dalits). It eventually became a one-sided contest with the Congress bagging both the AHINDA votes and the Lingayat votes.The victory in the three constituencies has strengthened Siddaramaiah's position amid talks of a change of guard following the MUDA scam. DK Shivakumar, waiting in the wings to take over from Siddaramaiah, gave all the credit to the CM for the party's victory - an indication that he is going to bide his time to get the top post.The Channapatna result is a big blow for Deve Gowda's family with respect to the survival of the JD(S) in the Old Mysuru area, where the Vokkaliga community is in good numbers. The BJP's losses in Shiggaon and Sandur have given leverage to the baiters of the state party unit's president, BY Vijayendra, whose leadership has faced criticism recently.(Naheed Ataulla is a senior political journalist based in Bengaluru. Views are personal.)How BJP+ Mahayuti Won Maharashtra 6 Months After Lok Sabha Defeat: 6 ReasonsRajasthan Bypolls: Alliance Woes and Internal Divisions Sink Congress

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3:0 in Karnataka Bypolls Will Come as a Huge Relief to Siddaramaiah

DK Shivakumar, waiting in the wings to take over from Siddaramaiah, gave all the credit to the CM.

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Topics: KARNATAKA