Will the Nayakas go the saffron way this time too?

Ballari: The Valmiki-Nayaka (ST) community which stood by and large behind the BJP in the 2018 assembly election, may adopt the same stance in the Lok Sabha election too.

Apart from Ballari and Raichur which are reserved for Scheduled Tribes, the Nayaka community is dominant in Chitradurga (reserved for Scheduled Castes)  and Kalaburagi in north-east Karnataka and plays a decisive role in determining poll fortunes.

There are 19 ST MLAs at present in the state assembly in a House of  224 of whom  9 each are from the BJP and Congress and one from JD(S). As many as 53 castes are included in the ST category in the state, however, all major political parties have preferred the dominant Valmiki-Nayakas while allocating tickets, since this caste is believed to be the fourth largest after Lingayats, Vokkaligas and Kurubas in the state’s social structure.

Apolitical Valmiki leaders point out that the community may swing towards the BJP again in this LS poll too for specific reasons. “The Congress has traditionally bracketed Dalits and Adivasis as one but the BJP has recognised the identity of Adivasis as different from Dalits and tried to address its issues”, said a university professor of the community adding that the current BJP led government at the Centre had taken steps to include ‘Talawar’ ‘and Parivar’ community  in the ST bloc which will help the party reap electoral benefits.

Besides, the previous Congress regime’s decision to celebrate  Tipu Jayanti has further angered the community as it believes that Tipu had poisoned the 17th century Nayaka king of Chitradurga Madakari Nayaka. This move has also proved advantageous to the BJP.

The close confidante of the  Reddy minelords and BJP state vice President B Sriramulu is widely accepted as the top leader of the community which cherishes the dream of seeing him as the first chief minister of the state from the community. “The BJP has groomed him for the top rung in the party and there is no equally popular leader in the Congress, since the influence of the Jarkiholi brothers is limited”, said a community leader from Chitradurga while recalling that the BJP had projected Sriramulu as its deputy CM candidate ahead of the 2018 assembly poll. He was even pitted against then CM Siddaramaiah in Badami assembly seat though he lost,

The Nayaka community has also started feeling victimised by the JD(S)-Congress coalition government with some Congress legislators belonging to the community dubbed ‘unethical’ and ‘power mongers’.

“Congress MLAs belonging to the ST bloc, Ramesh Jarkiholi, B. Nagendra and J.N. Ganesh were depicted as villains by coalition leaders and the situation took a turn for the worse when coalition leaders adopted a  neutral over the resort brawl between Kampli MLA Ganesh and Hosapete MLA Anand Singh instead of taking steps to strike a compromise,” says a community youth leader from Hosapete adding that Congress leaders are responsible for sending Mr Ganesh behind bars and bringing a bad image to the community.

This is also why Sriramulu, is considered  a potential Deputy CM and maybe even CM candidate though he could not ensure the victory of his sister, J Shantha, who lost the Ballari Lok Sabha seat to Congress candidate V.S. Ugrappa in the 2018 October by-poll. The margin was nearly 2,50,000 votes in a constituency that Sriramulu represented earlier. Now, according to sources, Ramesh Jarakiholi, Nagendra and Ganesh have teamed up with Sriramulu to ensure the defeat of Congress candidates particularly in Ballari and other constituencies in north-east Karnataka.

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