Dharwad (Karnataka): The Dharwad Assembly constituency in north Karnataka, the place sitting MLA and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amrut Desai is combating a tricky battle in opposition to Vinay Kulkarni, is popping right into a do-or-die battle for Union Minister Prahlad Joshi who’s an MP from the area. There are allegations that Joshi was one of many leaders instrumental in denying a ticket to Jagadish Shettar, Lingayat strongman and former Chief Minister from his conventional bastion Hubbali.
Even although the anti-incumbency and alleged conceitedness of Amrut Desai is a worrying issue for the BJP, it was Joshi who had organized a seat for the sitting MLA being his protege.
Joshi had justified this with the speculation that with Congress fielding former MLA Kulkarni, the saffron occasion doesn’t have every other alternative however to subject Desai for the May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections.
Kulkarni was a two-term MLA from Dharwad who had received the seat as an unbiased candidate in 2004 and as a Congress candidate in 2013.
He is at the moment banned from coming into the constituency after being arraigned in a homicide case of BJP employee Yogishgouda Gowdar in 2016 and is presently out on bail.
The CBI had arrested Kulkarni in 2020 after taking on the case in 2019 following agitations by Joshi and native BJP members demanding a CBI probe.
Kulkarni obtained bail in 2021 from the Supreme Court. However, the apex courtroom denied him permission to enter the Dharwad district.
The former MLA and his spouse Shivaleela, who’s spearheading his marketing campaign in his absence, are highlighting the BJP`s politics of hate and victimisation and making an attempt to arouse sympathy issue within the constituency.
While each Vinay and Amrut are from the Lingayat subsect, Panchamasali, the previous has a gentle nook inside the group as they really feel that it was Kulkarni who had spearheaded the motion to incorporate Panchamasali Lingayats within the 2B reservation quota.
Several senior leaders of the BJP in Dharwad are quiet after the ill-treatment meted out to Shettar who has a spotlessly clear picture throughout north Karnataka and this can even have an effect on the prospects of Desai.
Sources within the BJP instructed IANS that former MLA Seema Masuti has shied away from the marketing campaign, whereas a number of different leaders in Dharwad stop the saffron occasion.
Another issue plaguing the highly effective Lingayat group in your entire North Karnataka is that Joshi — a Brahmin had colluded with one other fellow Brahmin — BJP`s nationwide General Secretary B.L. Santhosh to disclaim a seat to Shettar.
If Desai loses in Dharwad, it is going to be a significant setback for Joshi understanding absolutely nicely that different main communities within the extremely caste-conscious state won’t settle for a Brahmin being put up as a Chief Ministerial candidate.
