• Win strengthens CM Yediyurappa
• BSY under fire from party dissidents
Bangalore: BJP has swept two constituencies Sira and RR. Nagar with huge margins in the by-poll held on Nov 3rd. MLA Munirtnam won with a record margin of 58000 votes in R.R.Nagar constituency surpassing his previous margin of 28000 votes in 2018 elections on Congress ticket. In Sira, BJP won with a margin of 13000 votes by CM Rajesh Gowda against Congress candidate T. Jayachandra.
What does this win mean for the BJP?
For the first time, BJP is able to make inroads into Vokkalinga dominated areas. Sira is a constituency in Thumkur district of old Mysuru where vokkalingas have been dominating elections for 20 years. This is a strong belt of the congress and the JD(S). But for the first time under the poll management of Yediyurappa’s son Vijayendra the BJP was able to beat the Congress in its bastion. Corruption allegations by Congress and JD(S) against Vijayendra were pushed aside by voters and kept their faith in the leadership of Yediyurappa and BJP, which is a signal for opposition parties that BJP is crashing the vote belt of both the opposition parties and BJP has the popular support in Karnataka.
Sira by poll was held due to the sudden demise of sitting JD(S) MLA Satyanarayana and the party gave ticket to his wife Anjanamma with a hope of generating sympathy sentiment. But the voters turned down the factor voting for the BJP. Old Mysuru and Tumkur regions are strongholds of the JD(S) where it lost 50% of votes in by poll.
R.R.nagar loss, setback for Shivakumar.
Lack of internal democracy in the party is another worrying factor for the Congress. With BSY under fire from dissidents, the Congress failed to win R.R.Nagar seat in spite of Shiv kumar having huge following in the constituency. It is a big setback for Shivkumar who took charge as KPCC President recently. The Congress has to get its act together if it wants to perform better in future. Congress has not consolidated its vote bank after the 2018 elections.
CM Yediyurappa played Safe
There were dissidents raising their voice against Yediyurappa for a few months but the win now will keep them silent for a few days. Win will place him in a firm position on CM chair and he can be assured that his government would remain stable for some time. The allegations against his son Vijayendra were not taken seriously by the voters and dissidents in the BJP and the opposition leaders would not make noise about them for some time. Now it is the time for the CM to project his son as his successor after the huge victory registered in Sira by executing Vijayendra’s perfect strategy. This win would strengthen Yediyurappa, aged 79, who is still keeping party in safe zone by enjoying major Lingayat caste support in State.
