Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023 | How the BJP fared in Lingayat bastions

Despite the BJP's efforts to woo the Lingayats, the party fared poorly in Lingayat-dominated bastions

The Karnataka Assembly elections turned out to be disastrous for the BJP, which saw its seat share decline from 104 in 2018 to 64, while the Congress swept the state.

In the run-up to the polls, among other things, the BJP had made a strong push to appease the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities in the state, which make up a significant per cent of the population and hence, have a strong influence on electoral outcomes in particular regions in the state.

The saffron party not only fielded a number of candidates from the two communities, but also scrapped the four per cent Muslim quota in the state and redistributed the same among the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas.

Also read: Loss in Karnataka raises several questions for BJP

Given the BJP's efforts, one may have expected the saffron party to do well in seats dominated by these communities.

However, as the results started to come in, it became apparent that the BJP was faltering badly.

Here, we take a look at how the saffron party performed in major Lingayat bastions.

Bagalkot:

Bagalkot, where several prominent leaders from both the Congress and the BJP had campaigned, saw Meti Hullappa Yamanappa of the grand old party beat BJP candidate Veerabhadrayya (Veeranna) Charantimath by a comfortable margin of 5878 votes.

Belgaum:

Despite being another Lingayat stronghold, the BJP only managed to win Belgaum Dakshin, while Belgaum Rural and Uttar were won by Congress candidates Laxmi Hebbalkar and Asif (Raju) Sait, respectively, at the expense of BJP candidates. While Hebbalkar won by a whopping margin of 56,016 votes, Sait finished comfortably with a margin of 4,231 votes. The BJP's candidate in Belgaum Dakshin—Abhay Patil—won by a margin of 12,308 votes.

Bijapur City:

BJP candidate Basanagouda R Patil (Yatnal), who was in the news for making a number of controversial statements ahead of the polls, managed to win Bijapur City, beating Congress candidate Abdul Hameed Khajasab Musharif by over 8,200 votes.

Chikmagalur:

The Lingayat bastion of Chikmagalur saw Congress candiate H D Thammaiah beat BJP National General Secretary C T Ravi by a margin of nearly 6,000 votes.

Davangere:

The Congress swept both seats in the Lingayat bastion of Davangere, with S S Mallikarjun and Shamanur Shivashankarappa beating BJP candidates Lokikere Nagaraj and Ajay Kumar B G by margins of 24,472 and 27,888 votes, respectively.

Dharwad:

In the Lingayat-dominated seat of Dharwad, Vinay Kulkarni of the Congress comfortably beat Amrut Ayyappa Desai of the BJP by a margin of 18,000 votes, thereby compounding the woes of the saffron party.

Gadag:

In Gadag, too, the BJP lost to the Congress, whose candidate H K Patil cruised to victory with a margin of over 15,000 votes.

Haveri:

Haveri also saw the Congress win, with the grand old party's candidate Rudrappa Manappa Lamani beating BJP candidate Gavisiddappa Dyamannavar by a margin of nearly 12,000 votes.

Shiggaon:

In Shiggaon, outgoing Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, a Lingayat himself, got the BJP a rare win, beating Congress candidate Pathan Yasirahmedkhan by a massive margin of over 35,000 votes.

Shikaripura:

In Shikaripura, the BJP fielded another heavyweight, B S Yediyurappa's son Vijayendra, who defeated independent candidate S P Nagarajagowda by a little over 11,000 votes.

Varuna:

The home turf of former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah, Varuna picked Siddaramaiah over BJP candidate V Somanna, with the former Chief Minister winning by a whopping margin of over 46,000 votes.