BJP braces for speed breakers on Pune-Bengaluru highway

Two former chief ministers, a former deputy CM and a Union minister are among the BJP candidates seeking election from six Lok Sabha constituencies spread along the 700-km Pune-Bengaluru national highway.

Each of these seats comes with its own set of challenges for BJP that had turned in a stupendous performance in 2019, winning 25 out of the 28 seats in Karnataka.

Tumakuru


Former minister V Somanna is facing some heat on the seat won by BJP five times since 1991. The party leadership fielded him responding to his demand, though sections of BJP leaders, especially local strongman JC Madhuswamy, see him as an outsider. Somanna, 73, earlier an MLA from Bengaluru, had lost from two seats in the assembly polls including against Siddaramaiah, the current CM. Some locals say only the Modi factor could save Somanna.

Chitradurga (SC)

BJP has fielded former deputy CM Govind Karjol from the central Karnataka seat. It was earlier held by minister of state (social justice) A Narayanaswamy. Both Narayanaswamy and Karjol belong to the Left subsect of the Scheduled Caste. BJP has fielded Karjol with the calculation that the Left voters, who are dominant, would back him. But, according to some partymen, Karjol has no local connect as he comes from the Mumbai-Karnataka region with a Kannada totally distinct from the way locals speak. Congress, on the other hand, has fielded a local, BN Chandrappa, also a member of the SC (Left).

Davanagere

Gayathri Siddeshwar, wife of sitting MP GM Siddeshwar, faced resistance from former MLAs including MP Renukacharya and SA Ravindranath.

Haveri

Former CM Basavaraj Bommai is fighting from Haveri. Sections of Panchamasalis, a dominant Lingayat subsect, are upset that he did not include them under the 2A category of reservation while in power. BJP is banking on the Modi factor in the district where five of the six assembly seats are held by Congress.

Dharwad

Union minister Pralhad Joshi has been quietly defending himself against a barrage of accusations by a local Lingayat mutt head, Dingalehswara Swami, who has also filed his papers as an independent candidate, much to the glee of the Congress.

Belagavi

Former CM Jagadish Shettar has taken on the young Congress candidate Mrinal Hebbalkar, the son of minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar. His relative, Mangala Angadi, the widow of former union minister of state Suresh Angadi, has stepped aside, but her own victory in the 2021 bypoll following her husband's death was by a margin of just about 5,000-odd votes. Shettar will have a lot of ground to cover here.