Karnataka: Cong makes inroads into BJP’s strongholds of Dharwad, Uttara Kannada

The Congress, which registered its biggest assembly poll win in nearly five years on Saturday and comfortably crossed the halfway mark in Karnataka, has also made inroads into Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s strongholds of Dharwad and Uttara Kannada. It won four of the seven seats in Dharwad and four of the six seats in Uttara Kannada.

Jagadish Shettar, who defected from the BJP before the polls, lost the Hubballi-Dharwad Central seat to first-time contestant Mahesh Tenginkai, a fellow Lingayat.

Congress managed to wrest the Dharwad seat. Vinay Kulkarni, who was banned from entering the district due to a murder case registered against him, defeated BJP’s Amrut Desai by a margin of over 18,000 votes.

The Congress also won Kalghatagi and Navalgund seats defeating the BJP. It retained the Hubli-Dharwad East seat.

The Hubballi-Dharwad region has been a stronghold of the BJP since the 1990s when the party championed the opening of the Idgah Maidan (Muslim prayer ground) there for functions of all communities. Six people were killed when police fired at a gathering when former Union minister Uma Bharati tried to forcibly hoist the national flag defying prohibitive orders at the prayer ground in 1994.

Shettar won his first election amid the BJP’s campaign for the opening of the prayer ground. The BJP wrested the Dharwad Lok Sabha seat from Congress in the 1990s and has held it since.

In Uttara Kannada, Congress wrested Karwar, Sirsi, and Bhatkal seats from the BJP. It retained the Haliyal seat. The Congress lost the Yellapur seat to the BJP. The Janata Dal (Secular) won the remaining Kumta seat.

The BJP, among other reasons, appears to have lost ground due to anger among fisherpeople, who have held protests against port projects on the Karnataka coast.

“The defeat of the BJP has given us hope that we will be able to oppose the projects. In coastal Karnataka wherever there were protests against the Sagarmala port projects, the BJP has lost...fishermen voted against the BJP even as [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi campaigned there...,” said activist Vikas Tandel.