Bypoll results: A crucial test for Bommai on Tuesday
BENGALURU: The results of fiercely-fought bypolls to Hanagal and Sindagi Assembly constituencies will be announced on Tuesday. Ahead of counting of votes, both ruling BJP and Opposition Congress leaders expressed confidence that their respective candidates would win both the seats that went to polls on Saturday. Though the results will not have any bearing on the government, ensuring the victory of BJP candidates is crucial for Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai as it will assert his leadership within and outside the party, especially ahead of a series of elections leading up to the Assembly polls in 2023.
Well aware of the implications of the results -- especially with the party high command declaring that the 2023 elections would be fought under his leadership -- the chief minister had camped at the Hanagal Assembly segment for over a week and took it upon himself to hold strategy meetings at the state level and address even small gatherings at villages. The Lingayat-dominated Hanagal Assembly constituency, which was represented by senior BJP leader CM Udasi, adjoins Bommai’s own constituency Shiggaon in Haveri district. That makes it all the more important for the chief minister to retain the seat.
“We are fully confident of winning both the seats,” said MLC and BJP State General Secretary N Ravi Kumar. In Hanagal, Udasi had done good work and the chief minister campaigned extensively and in Sindagi, there is a lot of goodwill for the BJP candidate, he added.
BJP is also banking on the ability of JDS, which has fielded candidates from a minority community in both constituencies, to split votes from this block, especially in Sindagi. Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy campaigned extensively in Sindagi, which the party won in the 2018 Assembly polls. The accusation against the regional party is that it is trying to split the minority votes to help BJP. But JDS leaders dismiss such charges.
While BJP banked on extensive campaigning by the chief minister, ministers, the party’s well-oiled organisational machinery and the JDS factor, Congress too had gone on aggressive campaigning to win the seats and stop its losing streak.
Tuesday’s results will prove if BJP’s victory run contiues, whether Congress manages to make a comeback ahead of elections to Legislative Council seats, zilla and taluk panchayats and BBMP and if JDS is still relevant in state politics.