Hangal win: Stepping stone for Cong revival

Shyam Sundar Vattam/NT Bengaluru, Nov. 3

The Congress victory in Hangal, the hometown of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, is seen as an indication of the revival of the party in the Mumbai-Karnataka region where it has always been a poor second behind the ruling BJP. Haveri district, considered a strong fortress of the saffron party for the last many years, been breached with the Congress winning the Hangal seat.

This re- gion was a Congress stronghold for several years before it was displaced by the saffron party headed by Lingayat leader and former CM, B.S.Yediyurappa. The BJP had been dominating the Mumbai-Karnataka re- gion for the last 15-20 years ever since ailing Congress CM, Veerendra Patil was unceremoniously removed from his post by the Congress leadership. Since then the Lingayats have never backed the Congress and have vowed their allegiance to the BJP. In fact several new faces have entered the Assembly and the Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket from the region thanks to people’s support. However, the result in Han- gal has proved that the Congress is on the comeback trail due to the waning popularity of Lingayat leaders including Yediyurappa. The party may have lost Sindagi by a big margin but the votes that it polled shows a steady improvement in its vote share. Usually, the entire Cabinet de- scends on the by-poll bound constituencies since it is a matter of prestige for the ruling party to win the seats at any cost. This is however not the case in general elections where state leaders conduct a whirlwind tour and leave everything else to the candidates who have to manage everything including approaching voters. While the Hangal defeat has come as a rude shock for the BJP, it has raised the confidence level of the Congress since the seat lies adjacent to the CM’s Shiggaon constituency in Haveri district. In fact, the Congress Party was searching for a right place to make a grand entry and the Hangal seat victory came handy for it.

The victory has left the rank and file of the Congress thrilled and has boosted their energy levels too. The confidence which was missing in the party rank and file for the last two years after the non so impressive show in the 2018 polls, is now back on the faces of Congress lead- ers. What probably worked for the party was the fact that all leaders worked as a team and successfully cap- tured the seat held by the ruling BJP. KPCC Working President Ramalinga Reddy told News Trail that “the Han- gal victory is the result of hard work of our leaders for more than three weeks. It is a first step towards reclaiming our former for- tress from the BJP. The real strength of the Congress will become evident in the 2023 general elections. You can no longer woo vot- ers by distributing money, liquor or freebies. If that had worked, the BJP would have retained the seat. The popularity graph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP is declining due to steady rise in the prices of fuel and LPG. The campaign by Yediyurappa did not have any effect on Lingayat voters”, he added. Reacting to the defeat, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, “We will in- introspection on the loss in Hangal. The margin of defeat was around 7,500 which could have been covered with hectic campaigning. The shortfalls in Hangal will be addressed suitably. I would like to thank the voters of Sindagi for voting for the BJP candidate. It is quite natural for the opposition party to celebrate its victory in the by-polls and claim it indicates the mood of the people. But what does former chief minister Siddaramaiah have to say about the Congress defeat by a margin of 31,000 votes in Sindagi?”.