BBMP polls: Caste vote wins it for BJP

Bengaluru: Second time lucky? And third? Upsetting Congress plans to wrest control of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council with an all out offensive, BJP won 100 wards out of 198. The results were declared on Tuesday by the State Election Commission for the polls held on August 22, setting the stage for a major confrontation with the Siddaramaiah government, which despite winning only 76 seats, is set on appointing a minister for Bengaluru to administer the city. Janata Dal (S) headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda won 14 and others won eight.

Whether the BJP will go along with the Congress leader’s plans for a makeover of Bengaluru’s civic administration is open to question. However the victory, after a bruising campaign, which garners a hat-trick for the BJP as it gives control of the BBMP to the party, much as it did last week in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, is a definite setback to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who took ownership of the campaign to win the city.  

Congress sources said that the knives would not be out just yet for Mr Siddarmaiah, given that zilla parishad polls are round the corner. But the defeat was being laid squarely at the CM’s door, who admitted “Yes, we did not win seats as we projected. Though, we never made tall claims, it was me who has been saying the party will win a simple majority. I own moral responsibility for this defeat.” As the party which has been in in power for more than two years, he said “it becomes all the more necessary for me to own up."

While the BJP leaders were exultant, with the man credited to be behind the success, R. Ashok saying “Our leaders worked together, we had set up a team and a strategy that worked,” BJP insiders said this was Mr. Ashok’s big moment, and marked his rise in the party as a Vokkaliga leader, to rival the hitherto state party giant and Lingayat icon, former chief minister B.S, Yeddyurappa, who said the verdict "shows the relevance of Modi wave still."

Poll analysts are saying this is a huge shift in the BJP voter base in the city, where the two major upper caste vote banks have chosen to invest in the BJP. While the Lingayats would not vote for any other party but the BJP, the move by the Vokkaligas, away from the JD(S) and the Congress, is to be noted.

One of the many reasons for the poor show, a senior leader said was that “Mr Siddaramaiah got it all wrong since the beginning of this polls as he could not connect with the urban voter.” He further added that Mr Siddarmaiah's pick of candidates from his own Kuruba community,  could not fight the Lingayat-Vokkaliga wave in favour of the BJP.

The other mitigating factor against the Congress was that apart from the caste vote and the disconnect with the urban voter, the split of its Muslim votes in key areas such as Shanthinagar and Govindrajnagar, where the JD(S) and smaller parties like the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), had an impact.

“Congress was pandering to the needs of the backward classes, at the cost of other sections of society, and it cost us dear,” the Congress leader said. Though marginally short of a simple majority mark of 103 in the 254-member council, BJP is expected to draw on support from Independent councilors to reach the magic  figure.