Vokkaligas in Congress team up to plan for 2023 Karnataka polls

Over a dozen Congress leaders belonging to the dominant Vokkaliga community held a closed-door meeting on Wednesday night where they are said to have discussed a strategy to take on the JD(S) in the 2023 assembly elections.

The Congress and the JD(S) are bitter rivals in the Old Mysuru region that is dominated by the Vokkaliga community and covers the geographies of Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan, Ramanagara, Chamarajanagar, Chikballapur and so on. The belt comprises some 60-odd assembly constituencies.

The Wednesday night meeting was organised by Rajya Sabha member GC Chandrashekhar, Byatarayanapura MLA Krishna Byre Gowda and former MP N Cheluvarayaswamy.

“The plan is to undermine JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda’s political clout over the community,” a party source said. “The meeting discussed plans to ensure the victory of more Vokkaliga MLAs from the Congress in the Old Mysuru region.”

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Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar, the party’s Vokkaliga face, did not attend the meeting. “He was not invited preempting that he would say no as his participation would send out the wrong message because he’s the party president,” the source said. However, Shivakumar’s brother and Bangalore Rural MP DK Suresh attended the meeting.

Shivakumar, who will lead the party into the 2023 polls, is aware of the challenge posed by the JD(S) that mainly depends on the Vokkaligas for votes.

Congress is pursuing some JD(S) legislators. The regional party’s GT Deve Gowda (Chamundeshwari) and K Srinivas Gowda (Kolar) are on their way out to join the Congress and a few others are lined up. The Congress hopes that these jumps will benefit them.

The Congress’ Vokkaliga leaders have also discussed touring the Vokkaliga-dominated areas to drum up support. “They discussed promoting youngsters in order to create a second line of leadership,” the source said.

The Vokkaligas are seen as a politically dominant community. They are estimated to make up for about 15% of the state's population, pegging their influence on a par with the Lingayats.

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