Can Congress break the 20-year winning spree of BJP in B'luru?

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Bengaluru, the IT hub of the country, is considered a crucial city by both the BJP and Congress as they lock horns in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The elections will be held in two phases on April 26 and May 7 in Karnataka.

Over the past few days, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah led the Congress campaign and while seeking votes for Bengaluru South candidate Sowmya Reddy and Bengaluru Central candidate Mansoor Ali Khan, he exuded confidence that people in the state capital will vote out the BJP this time.

However the voting patterns for state and central elections are different. Political analysts say that a vote for the Congress in the 2023 assembly election is no guarantee of a repeat in 2024.

The recent bomb blast at a popular eatery here and the raising of "pro-Pakistan" slogans in the corridors of 'Vidhana Soudha' have given fresh ammunition to the BJP to attack the Congress government.

The ruling Congress last won a seat from Bengaluru way back in 1999. Congress stalwart and former railway minister CK Jaffer Sharief was the party’s last MP from the state capital.

Understandably, the party is embarrassed and worried about this. Bengaluru, with a population of more than 1.5 crore people, has three Lok Sabha seats.

Parts of the city are also in the rural seat. It had two seats till delimitation in 2009 and, since then, the BJP has been winning all three seats.

Bengaluru South

When the city had two Lok Sabha seats, the north repeatedly elected Sharief and the completely urban south has voted against the Congress since 1977, this is barring 1989, when former CM R Gundurao of the Congress won by a big margin.

The south seat has been with the BJP since 1991. The Congress has made several attempts to win the prestigious seat, but failed. Even Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani lost from there in 2014.

This time, however, the Congress is making a serious attempt to win the seat by fielding former MLA Sowmya Reddy. She is hopeful of giving a tough fight to Tejasvi Surya.

Her father and transport minister R Ramalinga Reddy’s personal touch and political influence is likely to help her.

He has won eight assembly polls from the same seat (Jayanagara and BTM Layout assembly segments) since 1989.

Bengaluru Central

Bengaluru Central has been with the BJP since its creation in 2009.

The party has fielded its sitting MP, PC Mohan, for the fourth consecutive term. Unlike north and south, central has five Congress MLAs of whom three are powerful cabinet ministers.

The Congress has usually fielded a minority candidate here. This time, the Congress candidate is Mansoor Ali Khan. He is depending on the anti-incumbency faced by sitting MP PC Mohan, who has however maintained that he will win because of his work and the image of Prime Minister Modi.

Bengaluru North

The Bengaluru North seat is witnessing a battle of the Gowdas. Union Minister of State Shobha Karandlaje has replaced incumbent two-time MP DV Sadanand Gowda in Bangalore North and is pitted against MV Rajeev Gowda.

Despite Karandlaje's candidature not going down well with some leaders, the BJP is hopeful of a win. The PM is expected to hold a roadshow in this seat on April 14.

Bengaluru votes differently in assembly and parliamentary elections. In the assembly poll, the Congress mostly won 40 to 50 per cent of the seats, strangely losing all the seats in the Lok Sabha election.

Some blame the "adjustment politics" of Congress MLAs with BJP leaders for this trend.