Siddaramaiah, GT Deve Gowda face tough battle in Karnataka's Chamundeshwari, ego tussle raises stakes

Several bikes are parked near a house along a narrow alley in the village of Kenchalagudu in the outskirts of Mysuru. People have gathered around the entourage of cars that has blocked the route. In the veranda of the house, two men are engaged in a heated debate in Kannada, while a group encircled around them looks on. “It is a property dispute between brothers,” explains one when I ask him what is up. More importantly, the person mediating between the two brothers is GT Deve Gowda, the sitting MLA and JD(S) candidate from Chamundeshwari constituency in which Kenchalagudu falls. After a while, the two brothers shake hands, people around them clap, and the 68-year-old Gowda moves on to the next house. It is 11 in the morning. He had begun his day at 7. “I will be visiting 29 villages today,” he says. “I won’t be done before 10 pm. I want to meet as many residents as I can.” Gowda is leaving no stone unturned in Chamundeshwari , for it is not just any other seat, but an ego tussle, where he is up against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has been his old friend and colleague. “When you beat the sitting chief minister, it sends out a strong message,” he says. [caption id=“attachment_4457285” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”]  GT Deve Gowda with his supporters in Chamundeshwari. Parth MN[/caption] Siddaramaiah announced his arrival on the political scene from this very constituency in 1983 when he won as an independent. He won again in 1985, this time on the Janata Party ticket. And till today, he has contested seven times from Chamundeshwari, losing only in 1989 and 1999. “I was in charge of all those election campaigns,” says Gowda nostalgically. “We were close friends.” But Siddaramaiah parted ways with the JD(S) in 2006, and joined the Congress. Two years later, the constituency was broken into two parts – Chamundeshwari and Varuna, and Siddaramaiah shifted his base to Varuna because it suited him demographically. But a personal tragedy of the death of his elder son, who had been looking into matters related to Varuna, compelled the chief minister to rope in his younger son. He will be contesting from Varuna, since it is a safer seat, while Siddaramaiah is back in his old bastion. But he has an uphill task. Times have changed, and a fascinating contest is brewing in the farmlands outside Mysore. In a constituency of close to 3 lakh voters, almost one-third belong to HD Kumaraswamy’s Vokkaliga community that is consolidating acutely behind his JD(S). Therefore, it can be safely said that Gowda has a head start of about 70,000 votes. 80-year old Pattamdamma says Siddaramaiah has ignored Chamundeshwari, and she has hardly seen him here. “We are done voting for him,” she says. “Kumaraswamy has promised to increase pension for senior citizens. He is a pro-poor leader. Siddaramaiah is casteist. He has purposely ignored Vokkaligas. All the government jobs are given to his Kuruba community or Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Muslims.” JD(S) and Kumaraswamy have played the victim card successfully in Vokkaliga-dominated areas. While the prevalent perception among Vokkaligas may or may not be true, Siddaramaiah has certainly not done anything to convince the dominant peasant caste otherwise. Vyankatesh, who has a hair salon in Jayapura village, says residents from 40-50 villages dominated by Vokkaligas are his customers, and elections are often discussed at the shop. “They are impressed with Gowda’s energetic campaign,” he says. “People visit him with their problems, and he serves tea and biscuits. On the other hand, you need a VIP card to meet Siddaramaiah. He has hardly paid attention to Chamundeshwari. Gowda installed a Bisleri plant and solved the drinking water problem of 40-odd villages.” [caption id=“attachment_4457281” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”]  Vyankatesh, who owns a hair salon in says GT Deve Gowda is more accessible than Siddaramaiah. Parth MN[/caption] The narratives change in the diametrically opposite direction, when one visits Kuruba dominated villages. Residents accuse Gowda of casteism for ensuring development only in Vokkaliga villages. Interestingly, Vokkaligas and Kurubas shared an amiable relationship for a long time, for JD(S) patriarch and former prime minister Deve Gowda had groomed Siddaramaiah. The polarisation began in 2006, and it has perhaps reached its zenith ahead of the impending state elections. “Look at the condition of roads here,” says Dodaiyya, 37, sitting at the Kuruba temple in Kalisiddunahundi village. “We get water only for two hours in three days. Gowda has been selective in his work. Siddaramaiah is an honest man who was not treated well by JD(S). We do not trust Kumaraswamy.” Arsamma, 48, says Siddaramaiah’s Anna Bhagya scheme for Below Poverty Line ration card holders has helped greatly. “We prepare idlis from the rice we get and sell it,” she says. “The Ksheer Bhagya scheme of milk has also helped the poor a lot. We have a farm but due to lack of rain, it is not possible to sustain only on the harvest. The water released from the nearby dam is not enough.” Kuruba – the largest OBC community in Karnataka – is firmly in Siddaramaiah corner. And it is a sizeable 40-odd thousand in Chamundeshwari. So are around 10,000 Muslims, which makes the Congress confident of pulling it off. “Last time, we lost by 7,000 votes,” says Somashekhar, Youth Congress President in Mysuru. “And we did not have a high profile candidate. It should not be too difficult for the chief minister to reverse a margin of 7,000.” Technically, he is right. But a year is a long time in politics, they say. Here, we are talking about five. The Vokkaliga consolidation was not as acute five years back, and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes vote, by and large, tilted towards the Congress. But the JD(S) has managed to pull some of that vote by allying with the BSP. B Chandra, who used to be with BSP, and is now with the JD(S), says he had polled 10,000 votes when he contested from Chamundeshwari on a BSP ticket in 2004. “BSP has a vote base here,” he says. “We are expecting that vote will be transferred to the JD(S).” Anticipating the nail biting finish, BJP has entered a dummy candidate, in the hopes of propping the JD(S)’ chances. And the electorate here is well aware of it. Siddaraju RG, 30, sees politics of hypocrisy in it. “You ally with BSP officially, and then have a tacit understanding with the BJP at local level,” he says. “It is shameless politics. I voted for Modi in 2014, but will not waste my vote on him again. He is only interested in traveling the world. Where is employment? Where is development? Congress is the right alternative.” On the other hand, Mahadev Swami, a farmer from Tandooru village, would be voting for the JD(S) for the first time. “I am a Lingayat,” he says, pointing towards his janeu. “A hard core BJP supporter. The tactics of the party clearly indicate they want us to vote for the JD(S). We cannot vote for the Congress in any case. Siddaramaiah is trying to divide Lingayats by playing the religion card.” The crucial transfer of Lingayat votes could give JD(S) the mathematical edge. And Siddaramaiah probably knows it. He is also contesting from Badami, which he is sure of winning, and has spent more time there, and sent his cadre to campaign in Chamundeshwari. The Congress drive, therefore, has been lukewarm as compared to the JD(S). Siddaramaiah is expected to spend the last four days of the campaign here after arriving on Sunday. But we wonder if it will be enough. 15 May should give a better idea.