BENGALURU: Six back-to-back victories for the BJP from the Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency since 1996 have virtually halted the Congress juggernaut in the seat which has evolved into a saffron party bastion even as the Grand Old Party is leaving no stone unturned to regain its lost ground.The Congress had won this seat in the first 10 Lok Sabha elections from 1952 to 1991. This time, the fight is between the BJP and the Congress-JD(S) common candidate.
Since the emergence of the Vajpayee era in the late 1990s, politics in this constituency has been a different ball game altogether. Seldom have factors like caste, religion, development or dynasty played a key role in the elections to either the Assembly or the Lok Sabha since 1996 as the BJP remained the voters’ ultimate choice here.Despite its failure to achieve a majority in the state, BJP won six of the eight Assembly segments in Dharwad LS constituency in the 2018 Assembly polls. In the process, even some of the unknown faces defeated the so-called Congress bigwigs.
The political predicament of the Congress has virtually touched its nadir in this constituency where it is grappling to find a suitable candidate. Against a formidable opponent, Pralhad Joshi, the sitting BJP MP, the Congress is exploring possibilities of fielding a new face like Shakir Sanadi or Sadanand Danganavar instead of fielding Vinay Kulkarni in wake of the latter’s fading popularity.
An alleged linking of incidents like the recent collapse of an under-construction building in Dharwad, killing of political leader Yogesh Gowda, among others to Vinay Kulkarni has dented his reputation although the charges are yet to be proven. Under pressure from a lobby of party leaders, the Congress is unlikely to field him this time.
Left with no options but to field political neophytes like Danganavar or Sanadi, who are youth party leaders from Hubballi, the Congress is expected to take a final call on it soon.The prospective Congress candidate Danganavar attributes victories of Joshi in the last three elections to the waves of Vajpayee, Yeddyurappa and Narendra Modi.
He accusing the sitting MP of not working towards creating employment, establishment of industries, taking up women-empowerment initiatives, among other issues. “Several BJP leaders in the region have won on the waves of their top leaders and did nothing to their constituencies. It is the wish of Rahul Gandhi to field more young leaders to bring a healthy change in society through them,’’ Danganavar said.
According to sources, Shakir Sanadi, son of former MP IG Sanadi, is closely associated with Rahul and most of his supporters are lobbying to get him fielded by the Congress.
According to Congress’ plans, two leaders from the Muslim community are to be fielded in the LS election from Karnataka. Already, Rizwan Arshad has been fielded from Bangalore Central and the party is under pressure to field another from Dharwad. The party, however, is expected to go by the “winnability’’ factor if it fails to find a suitable candidate from the Muslim community, sources said.
Although, Dharwad constituency is predominantly occupied by Lingayats, the caste factor has not been clicking in most of the Assembly and LS elections in recent years. Chief of VRL, Vijay Sankeshwar, a Lingayat, won thrice (1996 to 1999) from here, but Joshi won the next three elections. According to the data, voting has never been on caste-lines even in the elections to the Assembly held in most of the eight assembly segments here in the last few elections.