How parties are playing the caste game in Karnataka

Karnataka, which goes to polls on May 10, is a melange of castes and communities. So, the state's major part - BJP, Congress and JD(s) - need to get the caste balance right for a majority in the 224-member assembly. Manu Aiyappa Kanathanda sums up the key castes in the state and their issues
LINGAYATS
Worshippers of Shiva, the community was born out of philosopher Basavanna’s reform movement in the 12th-century. They are among Karnataka’s biggest other backward class (OBC) communities, accounting for 17% of votes. Agriculture and business were their traditional occupations. The Lingayats strongly backed former CM B S Yediyurappa, who is credited with bringing the first BJP government to the south. Now that he has retired from electoral politics, his successor and fellow Lingayat, Basavaraj Bommai, is driving the BJP campaign.
The Bommai government had increased reservation for Lingayats and Vokkaligas by 2% each after withdrawing the 4% OBC reservation for Muslims, so BJP is hoping to cash in on this in terms of votes. In the 2018 campaign, BJP had painted Congress as an anti-Lingayat party for proposing a separate religion status for them. But in 2023, some prominent Lingayat faces from BJP – including former CM Jagadish Shettar – have moved to Congress, which is hoping to dent BJP’s Lingayat base.
BJP has 68 Lingayat candidates this time – more than in 2018. Congress has also increased its Lingayat candidates from 43 in 2018 to 51.
MUSLIMS
Karnataka’s BJP-led government scrapped the 4% Muslim quota in the state, in March, and re-apportioned it equally among the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas. So, Muslims now have to compete for the 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS) with Brahmins, among others.
While BJP hopes this move will curry favour with Lingayats and Vokkaligas, Congress is hoping for Muslim support and has announced it will restore their quota if it returns to office.
KURUBAS
Also an OBC community, they are Karnataka’s fourth-largest caste group, making up 8-9% of the state population, and play a crucial role in most of the constituencies.
They have been demanding restoration of their scheduled tribe (ST) status, which ended in 1977. However, the Centre has twice rejected the state’s attempts in this connection.
Congress veteran and former CM Siddaramaiah is perceived as the Kuruba community’s undisputed leader. Former deputy CM K S Eshwarappa was the BJP’s Kuruba face until he retired from electoral politics.
SC, ST
All parties woo the SCs and the STs who together make up 24% of Karnataka’s population and can shape the outcome in about 100 seats, of which 36 are reserved for SCs and 15 for STs. However, they don’t vote en bloc because of the way they have been categorised into ‘right’, ‘left’, ‘touchables’, etc. For example, the SC (right) traditionally vote Congress, but the SC (left) support BJP.
Ahead of the assembly polls, the BJP government increased the quota for SCs from 15% to 17%, and for STs from 3% to 7%. Heeding a demand from SC (left) communities, it also proposed internal reservation for 101 SC sub-sects. However, these moves were resented by some of the sub-castes that are hardcore BJP supporters. To placate them, BJP has picked the highest number of candidates from these castes in the 36 seats reserved for SCs.
VOKKALIGAS
With 15% of votes, the Vokkaligas are Karnataka’s second dominant OBC community after the Lingayats. Largely a peasant community, they have kept JD(S), the party of former PM H D Deve Gowda, relevant in Karnataka politics. Even after multiple splits, JD(S) wins a large chunk of its seats in the old Mysuru region.
The battle for Vokkaliga votes is mainly between JD(S) and Congress, although BJP has been trying to make inroads. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections it had secured a large chunk of Vokkaliga votes.
This time, it has given tickets to 47 Vokkaligas, up from 34 in 2018.
Congress is banking on its state unit president D K Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga, for the community’s votes. It has 43 Vokkaliga candidates this time, as against 41 in 2018. JD(S), considered a Vokkaliga party, had 24 MLAs from the community in 2018. This time, it has ?elded 45 Vokkaliga candidates.
Data from previous elections shows JD(S) and Congress have historically secured most of the Vokkaliga votes, and BJP the rest.