BENGALURU: As Vokkaligas (15 per cent of the inhabitants) are thought of to be the second main neighborhood of Karnataka after Lingayats (17 per cent), the main target is on how whether or not there can be a shift of their voting stance within the May ten meeting election because the ruling BJP has aggressively tried to woo them. One can gauge the function Vokkaligas play in Karnataka politics from the truth that it has given seven Chief Ministers to Karnataka since independence and a PM. As a retired IAS officer places it, it is a neighborhood which has wealthy political consciousness. “Of the 17 Chief Ministers Karnataka had, seven were from the Vokkaliga community. K Chengalaraya Reddy, Kengal Hanumanthaiah and Kadidal Manjappa, the first three chief ministers of the state, were from the Vokkaliga Community,” the officer mentioned.
He added that H D Deve Gowda, a Vokkaliga, turned the primary particular person from Karnataka to occupy the put up of Prime Minister. The (*100*) Mysuru area, the neighborhood’s stronghold, includes Ramanagara, Mandya, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu, Kolar, Tumakuru and Hassan districts. The area has 58 meeting constituencies, which is greater than one-fourth of the entire variety of seats within the 224-member House.
JD(S) represented 24 seats, Congress 18 and BJP 15 on this area within the present meeting. This aside, the neighborhood is current in sizeable numbers in Bengaluru Urban district comprising 28 constituencies, Bengaluru Rural district (4 constituencies), and Chikkaballapura (eight constituencies). A political activist Raje Gowda claimed that Vokkaligas dominate in all of the 27 out of 28 meeting constituencies of Bengaluru city district barring Anekal. In the Bengaluru rural district and Chikkaballapura, they maintain sway, he added.
“We are scattered ideologically and do not vote en masse like certain other communities. This shows we are liberal in choosing our leaders, which can be seen either as our weakness or our strength,” Raje Gowda quipped. H D Deve Gowda-headed JD(S) counts the Vokkaligas as its principal vote base within the (*100*) Mysuru area, the place it is principal combat is with the Congress although of late the BJP has been capable of make some inroads.
Apparently, searching for to develop its base amongst this neighborhood, the BJP authorities got here up with its ‘reservation engineering’ making the 2B class of 4 per cent reservation, solely for ‘different backward Muslims’ redundant and distributed the 2 per cent equally amongst Lingayats and Vokkaligas. With this, reservation for Vokkaligas has gone up from 4 per cent to 6 per cent. The transfer happy the revered seer of Vokkaliga neighborhood, AdiChunchanagiri Math pontiff Swami Nirmalanandanatha, who praised the BJP authorities.
As a part of its Vokkaliga “appeasement” train, the BJP constructed a 108-ft tall Nada Prabhu Kempe Gowda’s statue, the founding father of Bengaluru and sixteenth century chieftain of Vijayanagara dynasty, close to the Bengaluru International Airport. Recently, Karnataka Minister Munirathna, who can also be a filmmaker, got here up with a plan to make a film ‘Uri Gowda-Nanje Gowda’ primarily based on a folklore.
The folklore relies on a perception amongst a bit of individuals that there have been two Vokkaliga chieftains in erstwhile Mysuru kingdom by title Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda. It was not the colonial British military however these two chieftains who killed the 18th century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan, a declare supported by even some BJP Ministers.
However, Munirathna dropped the plan after Swami Nirmalanandanatha requested him to not proceed with the venture saying that there was no historic foundation behind the story and it might solely create confusion amongst folks. A Vokkaliga Sangha office-bearer advised PTI requesting anonymity that had the film been made, it might have helped the BJP to garner extra votes”. “The ‘Uri Gowda Nanje Gowda’ venture might need been dumped, however it’s nonetheless mentioned amongst Vokkaligas. Further, the rise in reservation can even have a bearing on the election, it appears,” he mentioned.
