The outburst of Fakira Dingaleshwar Swami, a Lingayat seer from Shirahatti in Gadag district, against the BJP for “ignoring” certain communities while “appeasing” some others during ticket distribution for the Lok Sabha election, has brought to the fore the undercurrent in several communities which feel that they are denied opportunity in the electoral arena in the State.
While ticket distribution during the parliamentary election is restricted to 28 constituencies, leaving limited space for caste-based manoeuvres, there has been disenchantment among many communities towards all parties since the time of the Assembly election. Particularly so among the most backward classes (MBCs), whose relatively smaller population does not provide a lever for bargaining.
Many ignored
Sri Dingaleshwar Swami, who has announced his candidature as an Independent from the Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency against incumbent MP and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, accused the BJP of ignoring several communities while it has given ticket to three Brahmins, who are believed to constitute no more than 2% of the State’s population. The seer also spoke about how a large number of OBCs are disappointed with the ticket distribution apart from Veerashaiva-Lingayats who have not been given adequate representation in the government despite having nine MPs.
While the seer trained his guns at the saffron party, Congress sources also acknowledged that though the party has nominated OBCs in five seats, the MBCs are unhappy as they were left out during the Assembly polls and subsequently in sharing power. “At some meetings held earlier, representatives of communities have raised the issue,” said a source. Christians have also expressed unhappiness at the community not being represented despite its support to the Congress, the source said.
“Even in the larger OBC canvas, in places where Kurubas are playing a dominant role in politics, other backward classes are not happy as power has not been equally distributed. No party has distributed ticket according to the population ratio as a lion’s share has been taken by the land-owning Vokkaliga and Veerashaiva-Lingayats in both BJP and Congress,” another source said.
Caste-wise break-up
While Veerashaiva-Lingayats have got five ticket from the Congress and nine in the NDA alliance of the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular), the Vokkaligas have got six ticket in the Congress and five in the NDA alliance. While Brahmins have been nominated for three seats by the saffron party, Edigas have been nominated for two seats by the Congress and for one by the BJP. Balijas and Bunts have got one each in both parties. Besides a ticket to Muslims, the Congress has given a ticket each to Reddy and Maratha communities. For the reserved constituencies, the Congress has nominated two from SC (Left) and three from SC (Right), while the BJP has nominated two from SC (Left) and one from SC (Right) besides two from the Lambani community in SC reserved constituencies.
Several relatively big OBC communities such as the Devanga (weavers), Uppara, and Vishwakarma do not have adequate political representation even though their support becomes crucial for parties, sources said, adding that the recent meeting of Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar with BJP MLC K.P. Nanjundi, a Vishwakarma, was one such attempt to woo numerically important communities.
Spread thin
“When compared to the BJP, the Congress is a little better in terms of giving representation. Though some communities are numerically not too small, they are spread thin across constituencies, bringing down their bargaining power. In most cases pertaining to MBCs, their population do not figure much in electoral mathematics,” a former member of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes pointed out.
