The rice bowl of Karnataka, Gangavati town, is Koppal’s pride, but vast portions of the constituency has been experiencing back-to-back drought. Yet, the 2019 Parliamentary elections seems to be more of a fight between the ‘forward’ and ‘backward’ communities rather than that of two national parties.

Lingayats are a dominant ‘forward’ community in the constituency but the role of backward classes (OBCs) in the region is no less decisive.

This election is also tipped as a fight between arch rivals, the Karadi and Hitnal families. Basavaraj Hitnal, Congress and Kuruba (OBC) leader, and BJP’s Karadi Sanganna, a Lingayat leader, fought each other in five assembly elections and then locked horns in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This time, Basavaraj Hitnal’s son Rajashekar, Congress candidate backed by JD(S), is pitted against Karadi Sanganna, incumbent MP.

The poll tussle between the Lingayats and OBCs came to the fore since the 1980 elections when senior Congress leader H.G. Ramulu (OBC) emerged victorious. From then on, the Congress preferred to field an OBC candidate in almost all the elections. With the view to take advantage of the support of OBCs, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, then Janata Dal leader, contested in 1991, and lost to Basavaraj Patil Anwari of the Congress.

Since the 2009 elections, the Congress lost its hold over the constituency to the BJP, which won in 2009 and 2014 by fielding members of the ‘forward’ community. In terms of representation in the Union Cabinet, the constituency got lucky only once with Mr. Anwari being inducted into the Union cabinet once.

Despite a reservoir being built at Hosapete, the Tungabhadra river, has benefitted only a few taluks. The constituency has remained backward, with least facilities for higher education. Further, malnutrition has always been an issue.

While a few large-scale steel industries in and around Koppal have given a boost to the district’s economy to some extent, migration of people from rural areas to major cities continues. The other issues that remain unresolved are the construction of a flood-flow canal on the left bank of the reservoir and balancing reservoirs, shortage of water for irrigation and drinking water owing to accumulation of large quantities of silt in the reservoir, expediting the work on laying canals under the Singatalur Lift Irrigation project, and increasing the height of the Hirehalla dam.

Traditionally a Congress fort, the constituency has seen Congress candidates being sent to Parliament 10 times. Non-Congress candidates won six times here, with the BJP winning in the last two polls. Mr. Ramulu from the backward classes has won four times, the highest win by a candidate in the constituency. Interestingly, party affiliations seem to have made no difference to voters when Mr. Anwari, who had won on JD(S) ticket in 1989, shifted to the Congress to contest in 1991 and won against the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the ‘AHINDA’ leader, who had contested on JD(S) ticket.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress won in three Assembly segments — Koppal, Maski and Kushtagi, while JD(S) won in Sindhanur. The BJP won in Kanakagiri, Gangavati, Sirguppa and Yelburga. Now that the arch rivals enjoy support in four Assembly segments each, the electoral battle appears to be equally poised.