BENGALURU: The sweep that Congress managed in Ballari parliamentary and Jamkhandi assembly seat exceeded expectations. Political analysts and party leaders believe that Congress’ ability to work as one unit from top-down sealed the fate of the BJP in both seats. While Jamkhandi saw the party’s share of Lingayat votes return to Congress, Ballari saw a combination of perception politics of the alliance partners and the display of JD(S)-Congress bonhomie trounce the lonely battle put up by BJP’s Sriramulu.
Congress has also been presented with a reality check on its grassroots level workers’ disinterest in working with the JD(S), given the voter turnout in Mandya, Ramanagara and Shivamogga.
Three days before polling date, Congress was sure of a win in Ballari but the estimated margin ranged from 4,000 to 1 lakh. V S Ugrappa won with 6,28,365 votes - 2.4 lakh votes more than BJP’s J Shanta. “Ugrappa was a ‘no-conflict’ candidate who would not pose any threat to the local leadership.
Siddaramaiah inciting a competition between MLAs to get the maximum number of votes to get a ticket to state cabinet did the trick to mobilise local leadership,” observed Prof Narendar Pani, political analyst.
After a bitter public fight, the party even managed to get Jarkiholis to campaign to woo ST voters. The calculated efforts to make Ballari the venue for coalition unity with former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and Siddaramaiah helped build a perception of stability. This, in stark contrast to BJP where Sriramulu was heaving the poll cart all by himself with barely any presence of other top leaders. The win in Jamkhandi, the Congress believes, demolished the theory that Lingayats don’t prefer the grand old party.
“The margins show there is not just an anti-Modi vote but also a pro-Congress vote. Cross caste combinations, including Lingayats, have come back to us,” said Rizwan Arshad, Congress MLC. “Modi’s image as a non-corrupt person has been struck down so much that BJP leaders were confused about bringing up his name. People now seem to believe Congress deserves another chance,” Arshad added.