Mandya, the sugar bowl in Old Mysore region, is not so sweet during the election season. This is because elections are fought bitterly irrespective of their importance in this hotbed of Vokkaliga politics, which has a reputation of defeating even stalwarts like S.M. Krishna, G. Made Gowda, and M.H. Ambareesh.
But despite this, there are hardly any visible signs of electioneering now in Mandya, which is going to bypolls on November 3. In fact, there are a large number of villages that are yet to be visited by prominent candidates in the poll fray. Most of the voters are not even bothered about the polls, though it is comparatively a season of leisure for this agrarian district.
This indifference could, perhaps, be attributed to the fact that the new MP would get just about a four-to-five months’ tenure before the 2019 general elections to the Lok Sabha. The short tenure appears to be the reason for the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress combine and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party not bothering to field political heavyweights.
While the controversial, party-hopping former MLA L.R. Shivarame Gowda has been fielded by the JD(S) with support from Congress, former bureaucrat Siddaramaiah is testing political waters on BJP ticket. The party is yet to win any Assembly or Lok Sabha election in the district.
However, what has provided an interesting dimension to the otherwise drab elections is the effort by the saffron party to gain political foothold in this JD(S) and Congress bastion by using the undercurrent of dissidence within the district unit of Congress. Though the JD(S) and Congress have joined hands to form coalition government in the State, the district is still witnessing political animosity between the leaders of both the parties who are keen to safeguard their own political turf. The situation aggravated after two rebel JD(S) MLAs from the district were chosen by the Congress to contest the Assembly elections held in May this year. However, JD(S) settled political scores in an emphatic manner by making a clean sweep in all seven Assembly segments of the district.
The district Congress unit, including former JD(S) rebels, have been directed by the Congress top leadership to support Mr. Shivarame Gowda’s candidature.
The BJP, which never had any foothold in the district, is trying to gain advantage of this uneasy political situation. “Whether we will be able to win or not is a different thing. But definitely, this has come as a good opportunity for us to expand our party organisation here,” a senior BJP leader said.
On its part, the JD(S) is not unduly perturbed and is banking on the political clout of its top leaders — former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. “It’s finally the clout of these two leaders that works here and the image of the candidate is immaterial,” claimed a senior JD(S) leader, who was confident of the party’s victory.
Surprisingly, none of the issues that are impacting the district such as farm crisis marked by substantial number of farmers’ suicides, problems of sugarcane farmers complicated by non-operation of Pandavapura co-operative sugar factory, and sufferings of tail-end farmers owing to shortage of water have made it to the poll agenda.
The bypoll was necessitated for Mandya Lok Sabha seat after JD(S) leader Puttaraju was elected to the Assembly.