HUBBALI : Though a prominent pontiff bowed out of the contest after promising a scintillating match, the Lok Sabha election scene in Dharwad continues to be as intense and exciting.
Influential Lingayat pontiff Dingaleshwar Swamiji had spiced up the polls by announcing his candidature but later opted out. While making his pitch, the Swamiji had sharply attacked sitting MP and Union minister Pralhad Joshi (61), accusing him of dishonouring the Lingayats and victimising its leaders.
With the BJP repeating Joshi from Dharwad, the Congress hopes the Swamiji could be a force multiplier against him.
At stake in Dharwad is the BJP’s prestige as it has held this Lingayat majority constituency for seven consecutive terms. The Congress is trying its best to knock out Joshi. Their straight fight is being closely watched because of Joshi’s perceived proximity to the BJP brass.
Instead of fielding a Lingayat against Joshi, the Congress gave the ticket to an AHINDA (a Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits coined by Karnataka’s first backward class leader Devraj Urs), which has stood firmly behind Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The party’s nominee, Vinod Asuti (34), who belongs to the Kuruba community and is a debutant in the LS poll.
The Congress is playing the youth card against veteran Joshi. Also, district minister Santosh Lad has been campaigning vigorously for Asuti. For his part, Joshi is emphasising on the track record of the NDA government in ushering in development and his performance as a parliamentarian in the last two decades.
As the constituency has eluded the Congress since 1996, its campaign is focused on the wider reach of the five guarantees implemented by the Siddaramaiah government and the other guarantees in the party’s manifesto. That apart, the party has been stitching alliances with various social and caste groups to further strengthen its AHINDA plank.
The Congress is missing the services of its strong Lingayat leader Vinay Kulkarni, who was pitted against Joshi in the last two polls. But the Supreme Court barred his entry into the district while granting him bail, since he is an accused in the murder of BJP member Yogishgouda Goudar.
Performance wise, Joshi has done well. But the Congress is aggressively playing the Lingayat card to change the narrative. The BJP enjoys enough support among the Lingayats, but its victory would depend on how things pan out on the polling day.
The shocking murder of Neha Hiremath, the daughter of a Congress corporator is a red hot poll issue. By politicising it as ‘love jihad’, the BJP is trying to consolidate the Hindu votes. Dharwad goes to polls on May 7 when voters will have to choose between a veteran and a fresher.