KARWAR: Uttara Kannada is a constituency that was comfortably in the BJP pocket for 27 years, represented as it was in the Lok Sabha by firebrand Hindutva leader Ananthkumar Hegde.
In 2019, he won the seat by a margin of 4.79 lakh votes. But controversy is his middle name. It often gets him into trouble though he manages to wriggle out on most occasions. Then came the blunder in the second week of March when the general election fever was gradually building up. He said the BJP’s pitch for 400-plus Lok Sabha seats was to change the Constitution to promote Hinduism.
“Why does the BJP need 400+ seats? Congress leaders in the past made changes to the Constitution in a way that it doesn’t put Hinduism in front. We need to change it and save our religion. We already have two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha, but not enough in the Rajya Sabha to amend the Constitution. 400+ will help us achieve that,” he reportedly said.
That statement embarrassed the party brass, forced the BJP to disown it, and gave the Opposition the ammunition it was waiting for. Ever since, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others have assured the nation that the statute wouldn’t be disturbed, but the issue refuses to die down. And the BJP denied Hegde, 55, ticket and nominated former Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri instead. Hegde has gone into a deep sulk, which is hurting Kageri’s chances.
The Congress camp sees in the BJP’s internal churn an opportunity for revival. Hoping to wrest the seat, it gave ticket to Dr Anjali Nimbalkar, a former MLA. She is the spouse of a senior IPS officer in Karnataka and niece of former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, who is now with the BJP.
A medical practitioner by training, Dr Nimbalkar hails from Maharashtra. She won the Khanapur assembly seat in Belagavi district in 2018 but lost it in 2023.
Dr Nimbalkar is confident that the state government’s guarantee schemes are vote catchers. She extensively uses social media to reach out to the people when she hits the campaign trail.
The Congress is counting on the Ahinda, a Kannada acronym for minorities, OBCs, and SC/STs, who constitute 14.3%, 22.6% and 11.5%, respectively, of the total voting population of 12.48 lakh.
As for Kageri, he is a six-time MLA. However, his campaign has been rather sluggish. Hegde’s inaction is another drag. Kageri is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charm offensive.
Would the scandal involving two leaders of its ally JDS be an X-factor? It’s up to the voters to decide.