Karnataka elections: Ideology helps Saffron party buck state trend in coastal districts

MANGALURU/ UDUPI: When emotion-laced ideology and religion are the intoxicants, logic fails.
Perhaps this is why the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada (DK), and Udupi defied the state-wide trend of anti-incumbency, rejected opposition’s dole of guarantee card promise, and painted the coast saffron again.
The BJP did well to retain six of seven constituencies it held in DK in 2018 and lost one by default due to its own folly in Puttur. In Udupi district, it blanked Congress 5-0 like last time, establishing its supremacy in the Hindutva heartland. But what BJP will not be able to digest is how overconfidence helped Congress win a triangular contest, forced by Hindutva proponent Arun Kumar Puthila in Puttur. Contrarily, Puthila’s win may have embarrassed BJP, but nothing would have been lost as he had declared his support for the saffron party.
But the emphatic victories of all 12 BJP candidates in DK and Udupi, with sizable margins, demonstrates the cadre strength, who are in the iron grip of the Hindutva ideology. A case in point is even after dropping five incumbents, all but one in Puttur, won handsomely. On the flip side, the Congress also got its arithmetic right this time while choosing candidates-with the right caste background in constituencies – but did not have the arsenal to counteract the ideology wave that encompassed all majority castes.
Regarding the coast bucking the state trend, P L Dharma, professor, Department of Political Science, Mangalore University, admits that emotion always takes precedence over actual life in the history of coastal culture.
"And the political culture dictates that sweeping issues matter much more than crucial issues. Star campaigners failed to project local issues. They highlighted national issues and projected themselves, to help local candidates ride on their popularity," noted Dharma. In the absence of a meaningful debate, rhetoric takes centre stage, he said questioning the relevance of highlighting Lingayat, Vokkaliga reservation issue here, instead of communal issues that were affecting the region’s development and growth.