HUBBALLI : To deny BJP candidate Pralhad Joshi a fifth term from the Dharwad parliamentary segment, Congress is pitting him against the Lingayat community.
Though the same strategy by the party has not been fruitful earlier, this time it hopes to get the support of Dingaleshwar Swami of Shirahatti Bhavaikya Peeth, who had filed his nomination papers to contest as an independent but later withdrew.
Though Lingayats voters constitute over 25 per cent of the total electorate in the Dharwad segment, they have never voted along caste lines.
In the last 17 elections, they have elected candidates from other communities majority of the times, except when transport baron Vijay Sankeshwar contested and won thrice. Of the other four MPs, three were Brahmins and one an OBC.
In the first general election in 1952, DB Karmakar, a Brahmin, of Congress won against Kissan Mazdoor Praja Party’s CT Kambali, a Lingayat. In 1957, Karmakar defeated independent candidate BN Munavalli, who was also a Lingayat. From 1962 to 1977, Brahmin candidate Sarojini Mahishi, who contested four elections, won twice against Lingayat candidates.
In 1980, Mahishi, who was contesting on the Janata Party ticket, was defeated by DK Naikar from the Kuruba (OBC) community. He defeated Lingayat candidates fielded by either Janata Party or Janata Dal in the next three elections. Naikar, however, was defeated in 1996 by Sankeshwar, who was the first Lingayat elected from the constituency. He went on to win in 1998 and the 1999 snap elections against candidates from his community.
In the 2004 election, the constituency again elected a Brahmin, Pralhad Joshi, who was contesting against retired bureaucrat BS Patil of Congress. Though the Grand Old Party put up Lingayat candidates against Joshi in the next three elections, it did not taste any success. Joshi defeated Manjunath Kunnur in 2009 and Vinay Kulkarni in 2014 and 2019. It has been proved time and again that the Lingayat community has always elected candidates from other communities, despite it being the most-populous community in the segment.
But in this election, Vinay Kulkarni of Congress has been raising the Lingayat betrayal issue quite vigorously.
He was denied the ticket as the court has barred him from entering Dharwad district for his alleged involvement in the killing of BJP member Yogishgouda Goudar. During campaigning, Vinay has been alleging that Joshi lured Lingayat seers with money and is creating a divide in the Lingayat community. The community would have no meaning unless Joshi is defeated in this election, he states during his campaigning.
On the other hand, Dingaleshwar Swami has declared a ‘holy war’ against Joshi, accusing the Union minister of dishonouring Lingayat seers and suppressing community leaders.
Despite withdrawing from the contest, the pontiff has been campaigning against Joshi and is appealing to Lingayats to teach him a lesson to “salvage the community’s pride”. Whether these efforts would tilt the scales will be known on June 4.