The Indian National Congress won both the Davanagere South and Bagalkot Assembly bye-polls on Monday, May 4, retaining its strength in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. However, the Congress’ dismissiveness of the Muslim community—who are in significant numbers in Davanagere South—appears to have cost the party a substantial chunk of voters who shifted to the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
Samarth Mallikarjun, grandson of Lingayat strongman Shamanur Shivashankarappa, who has held the Davanagere South seat since it was created in 2008, won with 69,578 votes, a lead of 5,708 votes.
Although the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Shrinivasa T Dasakariyappa had the lead when counting began, by noon the tables had turned and the Congress maintained a narrow lead to win the seat. The SDPI candidate Afsar Kodlipete too maintained a steady stream of votes that only grew during the rest of the day.
In Bagalkot, Congress’ Umesh Meti, son of former Minister HY Meti, won with 98,919 votes. BJP’s Veerabhadrayya Charantimath lost by a margin of 22,332 votes.
The elections were held after the seats fell vacant following the deaths of Shamanur Shivashankarappa and HY Meti. Both constituencies saw high-intensity campaigning by senior leaders, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC chief DK Shivakumar.
However, the Davanagere South election saw internal friction from start to finish. Muslim community leaders had sought the party ticket for a Muslim candidate as the constituency had a large number of Muslim voters, thanks to gerrymandering by the Congress during delimitation.
However, the Congress gave the party ticket to Shamanur Shivashankarappa’s grandson Samarth, which did not go down well with the Muslim community as well as several Muslim leaders in the Congress.
Drama in Davanagere South
Samarth Mallikarjun won the Davanagere South seat with a vote share of 43%, which is significantly lower than the margin with which Shamanur Shivashankarappa won the seat. During the 2023 Assembly election, Shamanur Shivashankarappa had won 57% of the vote share with a total of 84,298 votes.
The BJP’s Shrinivasa Dasakariyappa won 40% of the vote share, while during the 2023 election, the BJP’s Ajay Kumar BG had won 38% of the votes polled.
The difference in the Congress’ votes appears to have gone to the SDPI’s Afsar Kodlipete, who garnered 18,975 votes, which is 12% of the total votes. In the 2023 election, the SDPI’s vote share in the constituency was less than 1% (1,302 votes).
Senior Congress leaders such as MLA Rizwan Arshad and others held a press conference the day after voting on April 9, accusing certain Muslim Congress leaders of not campaigning for the party’s official candidate. The party forced the resignation of the minority cell leader Abdul Jabbar and then dismissed him from primary membership of the party. It also removed MLC Naseer Ahmed from his post as the chief minister’s political secretary.
The role of Housing and Wakf Minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan also came under scrutiny following complaints of non-participation during the campaign. However, he faced no punishment from the party.
Muslim clerics criticised these developments, pointing out that Shamanur Shivashankarappa had himself openly campaigned for BS Yedyurappa’s son BY Raghavendra during the Lok Sabha election in 2024. Several prominent writers and activists in the state called out the Congress’ highhandedness in dealing with Abdul Jabbar and Naseer Ahmed.
Bagalkot
HY Meti had won the 2023 election with 79,336 votes and 46% of the vote share. Veerabhadrayya Charantimath had secured 73,458 votes and got 42% of the vote share.
Bagalkot had recorded a narrow Congress victory of 5,878 votes in 2023. This time, the Congress fielded the incumbent’s son, while the BJP nominated former MLA Veerabhadrayya Charantimath. Consolidation of Ahinda and Muslim votes formed the core of Congress’s strategy in the constituency.
Also read:
Davanagere bye-poll: Muslim clerics, civil society group accuse Congress of double standards
Davanagere South bye-poll: The question of Muslim representation in a political fiefdom