BENGALURU: Smaller players in Karnataka’s political scape — like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) — have managed to make a mark in the elections to three urban local bodies, the results of which were declared on Monday. The effect can be gauged from the fact that the city municipal corporations of Hubballi-Dharwad and Kalaburagi have hung houses while the balance was tilted in several wards in the Belagavi City Corporation.
Political watchers feel that if the trend continues, these parties could make more inroads at the grassroots level and have a significant impact on the outcomes of the taluk and zilla panchayat elections, which will be held in the coming months. In Kalaburagi, the AAP came second in two wards, losing one of them by a slender margin of 83 votes. It also managed the second spot in one ward of the Belagavi city corporation. In Hubballi-Dharwad, the party clinched 12 per cent of votes in one ward. Overall, the AAP garnered 3.5 per cent of votes in the 41 wards that it had contested.
“We have won the hearts of people. We had a good manifesto, but no strong organisation at the booth level. We will transform people’s support into votes in future and we look forward to the ZP and TP polls,” said AAP Karnataka convener Pritvi Reddy.
Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM too made a visible impact by opening its account in Belagavi, where it had fielded seven candidates, and clinching three seats in Hubballi-Dharwad where it contested from 12 wards. In all the four seats, the Congress would have benefitted if the AIMIM had not entered the fray.
In Kalaburagi, the party contested in the highest number of 20 seats but could not make a mark, indicating that the Congress, which emerged as the single largest party with 27 seats, is still the preferred choice for the minority communities. “Although they welcome Owaisi as their community leader, the minorities of Kalaburagi are unlikely to vote for his party en masse as they are wary that it will eventually help the BJP,” remarked a local leader.
“We were concerned about smaller parties, with an ideology similar to us, cutting into our votes. But the outcome of the polls has been good for us as the AIMIM had not made progress”, observed Chittapur Congress MLA Priyank Kharge who had campaigned for the Kalaburagi polls. “But, as each vote counts, we have to check where we lost our traditional votes to smaller parties,” he stressed.
The BSP, which had fielded its candidates in seven seats in Hubballi-Dharwad, seems to have affected the prospects of both the Congress and the BJP. Its candidates have grabbed a good number of votes in wards where the Muslim and SC population is considerable. In Kalaburagi, the party contested from six wards. Overall, the AAP contested 94 wards in the three city corporations. “Our candidates have polled a considerable number of votes in all the three corporations elections and we have lost some seats by a whisker. We will analyse the outcome,” said Pritvi Reddy.
“We have contested the ULBs polls after a gap of decade and plan to regain our original base,” remarked BSP state president Dr Krishnamurthy. The AIMIM plan to contest from select wards, where the Muslim population is concentrated, seems to have benefitted it. Hence, the party adopting a similar strategy in the 2023 Assembly polls cannot be ruled out, according to Sageer Ahmed, an analyst in Bengaluru.