A tightrope walk for Congress and JD(S) in Mysuru Rural

Consolidating votes along caste lines and expecting community groups to exercise their franchise as monolithic blocks may be the calculation of the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) strategists in Mysuru district. Both parties are confident of claiming victory here in the Assembly elections.

But the ground reality indicates that for every Vokkaliga who is supporting the JD(S), there is another who vouches for the Congress. Likewise, for every Lingayat voter who has sided with the Congress, there is another who speaks in favour the JD(S). The BJP is a distant third in Mysuru Rural.

This is evident in the rural hinterland of Mysuru and at Baradanapura, off the Mysuru-H.D. Kote Road. The village has a population of nearly 1,500 people, of whom about 850 have voting rights.

The locals claim that more than 85% of the people of the village are Lingayats and had strongly favoured the JD(S) till recently. “But in the past few months, there has been a perceptible shift towards the Congress as we have witnessed significant developments. Though Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself has not come here for more than 10 years, his son Yathindra has made a list of infrastructure projects required for the village,” said Mudappa, a farmer from the village.

This is a view endorsed by B. Sharanappa, the local head of a social service organisation. “The villagers were strongly inclined towards the JD(S) but funding for underground drainage, drinking water projects and road connectivity has helped swing things in favour of the Congress,” he said.

To buttress the point, the villagers pointed to local leader Mahadevaswamy, who was a staunch JD(S) follower till recently. But he quit the party to join the Congress, and Mr. Siddaramaiah visited his house on Monday and spent some time with him during his tour of villages in Jayapura hobli. It is not clear whether the shift in loyalty towards the Congress among the residents of Baradanapura has anything to do with State government’s move recommending minority religion status for Lingayats. But the matter is not even discussed in the open here.

J. Mayanna, a resident of Jayapura, said nothing matters more than the track record of five years. He vowed to eschew caste and religious leanings while exercising his franchise.

In other villages

Jayapura, where the Chief Minister campaigned on Monday, has 1,865 voters, of whom Naikas form a majority, followed by Scheduled Castes, Lingayats, and Muslims. The public opinion in the village is varied.

In the neighbouring Yelwal hobli, a strong bastion of the Vokkaligas, the fragmentation is along party lines. Some appreciate JD(S) president H.D. Kumaraswamy for supplying water to 56 villages in the area. Others recall that it was Mr. Siddaramaiah who had sanctioned the project and released funds for the works while Mr. Kumarawamy only performed the guddali puja.

But there is one thing that all agree about in unison: this election will be like no other and will be a tightrope walk for both the Congress and the JD(S).