BENGALURU: Even as Congress is focussing on reaching the 113-mark in the Assembly, one party has been giving it sleepless nights. No, it is not BJP, but SDPI. The Social Democratic Party of India, which contested a mere three seats in 2018, has named 11 candidates and is looking to put up 40-50 contestants to corner minority votes.
The SDPI move is likely to directly affect Congress, which took a lion’s share of minority votes last time. A few days ago, SDPI was talking about contesting from around 100 seats, which obviously worried Congress.
There have been instances where SDPI has affected Congress calculations. Like in the Chickpet Assembly segment, where Mujahid Pasha from SDPI contested in 2018 and took away 11,700 votes, constituting 9.08 per cent of the vote share. This left Congress’ RV Devaraj with only 49,378 votes or 38.3 per cent, allowing BJPs Uday Garudachar to romp home with 57,000 votes. Another case is that of 26 seats in the Madikeri Municipal Corporation, where SDPI has five members, Congress just one and BJP 16.
Apart from SDPI, Congress also has to worry about the challenge thrown by JDS and the AIMIM. JDS, which poached senior Congress leader CM Ibrahim, has been working hard to put up more Muslim candidates hoping to garner minority votes.
SDPI national general secretary EM Thumbe said, “We have seen Congress has not fought for many minority issues.’’
The Centre’s ban on Popular Front of India (PFI), the ideological arm of SDPI, and charges of it being too radical may have an impact on its poll prospects. Also, many PFI and SDPI members were blamed for the DJ Halli riots and some are still behind bars.