BENGALURU: With former RDPR Minister KS Eshwarappa being pushed to the political wings -- for the time being, as his supporters claim - the Congress and Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah will do their best to win over the Kuruba community and ensure its support in the 2023 election. The community had supported Siddaramaiah in 2013, catapulting him to the Chief Minister's post.
Siddaramaiah is likely to be the centre of attraction at the Kuruba community convention, slated to be held in Tumakuru on May 28. Kemparaju, leader of the Kanaka Sene, the youth wing of the community, confirmed that the convention has been fixed, and Siddaramaiah has given the dates. But he maintained that it was fixed well before the resignation of KS Eshwarappa.
The event, coming ahead of the 2023 assembly polls, is likely to set the ball rolling for both the Congress and Siddaramaiah to claim the support of the Kurubas. The community is politically influential, next only to the Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas in Karnataka.
The ruling BJP has no other frontline 'original' Kuruba leader, except for turncoats such as Byrati Basavaraj, H Vishwanath and MTB Nagaraj, to project them as community leaders. In fact, Eshwarappa, who had traction in the community, had also tried to attract the 'Ahinda' - acronym for Backward classes and Dalits - by launching the ‘Sangolli Rayanna Brigade’ in 2015-16.
However, he did not take it forward, following Amit Shah's advice, and apprehension that it would affect the BJP adversely. Now, with Eshwarappa having no power in his hands, Siddaramaiah has the opportunity to make a strong case for himself as the supreme leader of Kurubas once again.