Gangavati Assembly constituency in Koppal district, which has seen a triangular battle between the Congress, BJP, and JD(S) in the last four Assembly elections, has a new entrant in the Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha (KRPP), replacing the JD(S) in the fight.
After being “sidelined” in the BJP, G. Janardhana Reddy, who along with his brothers G. Somashekhara Reddy and G. Karunakara Reddy and his close associate and Naik community leader B. Sriramulu, played a key role in installing the B.S. Yediyurappa government in Karnataka in 2008, quit the party. He has floated his own political outfit, the KRRP, amid his prolonged legal battle related to illegal mining cases. He is testing his luck in the 2023 Assembly Elections from Gangavati.
First direct fight
For Mr. Reddy, who was a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council and served as Minister in the BJP government, it is the first direct election. He could not contest the election from his home district of Ballari because of the court-imposed restrictions to enter the district and that is why he has chosen Gangavati. The BJP has fielded Paranna Munavalli, the incumbent MLA, and the Congress has fielded Iqbal Ansari.
The constituency has an estimated Lingayat population of 60,000 followed by Muslims at about 40,000 and Kurubas at 20,000. While Mr. Munavalli is heavily dependent on Lingayats, Mr. Ansari is on Muslims and Kurubas.
Unlike the BJP and the Congress, which have their own traditional vote banks, the KRPP does not have a dominant community backup. Mr. Reddy banks on his financial resources and popularity among the youth, with which he could attract many middle-level leaders from other parties into his fold. Both the BJP and the Congress have trained their guns on Mr. Reddy and they have been saying that he would “loot” Gangavati just as he did Ballari. On his part, Mr. Reddy has promised to give a 2-BHK house to every homeless family in the constituency if voted to power.
For the Congress, apart from the solid support of Muslims and Kurubas and partial support of Lingayats, the development works that its candidate Mr. Ansari had implemented in the constituency during his tenure as MLA and Minister have come in handy. However, Mr. Ansari has to handle the dissent of Mallikarjun Nagappa and H.R. Srinath, who were strong aspirants for the Congress ticket.
Banking on ‘birthplace’
For the BJP, the Anjanadri Hill, which is believed to be the “birthplace” of Lord Hanuman, is the biggest issue to polarise the Hindu votes towards its candidate Mr. Munavalli. The holy place is on the bank of the Tungabhadra with the World Heritage Site of Hampi on the other bank. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai recently launched development works to be taken up at a cost of ₹125 crore at Anjanadri. BJP State Unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel had, in a poll campaign two months ago, openly called upon people to elect a Hindu candidate to represent the holy place in the Assembly. National leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too mentioned Anjanadri in their poll campaigns.
