BENGALURU: The bypolls to Davanagere South and Bagalkot Assembly constituencies on Thursday (April 9) is set to be a cliffhanger, with both the Ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP campaigning intensely to win the two seats.
The bypolls were necessitated following the demise of veteran Congress leaders Shamanur Shivashankarappa (Davanagere South) and HY Meti (Bagalkot).
The results that will be declared on May 4 will reveal whether there was any anti-incumbency factor working against the Siddaramaiah government and also to what extent the BJP has managed to utilise it to its advantage.
The political future of as many as 34 candidates (25 in Davanagere South and nine in Bagalkot) will be sealed after the polling ends on April 9.
The Congress has fielded Samarth Shamanur (Davanagere South) and Umesh Meti (Bagalkot). The BJP has pitched Veeranna Charantimath against Meti and Srinivas T Dasakariyappa against Samarth.
Samarth is the grandson of former minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa and son of Horticulture Minister SS Mallikarjun and Davanagere MP Prabha Mallikarjun. Umesh Meti is the son of former minister HY Meti.
The Congress has kept its fingers crossed, hoping to repeat the victories it secured in the bypolls held to Shiggaon and Channapatna in November 2024, where the party candidates defeated Bharat Bommai of the BJP and Nikhil Kumaraswamy of JDS, respectively. The Congress had also retained Sandur then.
But LoP in Assembly R Ashoka has claimed that the BJP will win both Davanagere South and Bagalkot seats.
In Davanagere South, the strong 75,000+ Muslim voters will play a significant role in determining the winner, said sources. A section of Muslims is, however, averse to Congress after it denied a ticket to a member of the community. As many as 14 members of the community, albeit one Sadiq Pailwan, are in the fray.
“There was an impression that the seat would witness a triangular fight between Samarth Shamanur, Srinivas T Dasakariyappa, and a contestant from the Muslim community, such as independent Khader Adil Pasha or SDPI candidate Afsar Kodlipet,” opined a political analyst. The Muslim candidates managed to keep up the momentum until the last minute of the campaigning and did not budge to the alleged pressure from the Congress to pull out of the contest. The BJP is banking on the split in Muslim votes.
While Samarth hails from the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community, Srinivas is a ST Nayaka leader. In Bagalkot, the fight is between BJP’s Veeranna Charantimath, a Veerashaiva Lingayat, and Congress’ Umesh Meti, a Kuruba.
The BJP believes that there is a consolidation of Hindu votes and anger against the Congress over the five guarantees, especially the Gruha Laksmi scheme, will work in its favour.
Siddaramaiah had devoted most of his time campaigning in Bagalkot, and a photo finish is likely, said sources citing an intelligence report.