BJP, Congress invest heavy political capital for bigger pie of Bengaluru

The past week, social media was replete with shocking visuals of Lokayukta officials counting piles of money in a residence linked to BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa.

They recovered about Rs 8 crore cash from the residence, while his son Prashanth Madal was caught red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh.

It was an embarrassment to the ruling BJP even as the Congress trumped up the ‘40% commission in public works’ allegation against the government.

With less than two months for the elections, many believe that such incidents could put the BJP on the backfoot, especially in urban areas like Bengaluru.

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Political analyst D Umapathy told DH: “It may have seemed that the dust had settled on the ‘40% commission’ allegation. But the Lokayukta raid has refreshed the narrative. The Congress is bound to intensify it closer to elections.” According to him, corruption and price rise are two issues which pose a challenge to BJP in Bengaluru.

The BBMP limits (in addition to Anekal) have about 28 constituencies. It’s a popular perception that whichever party has the edge in Bengaluru has an edge in the overall results.

In the 2018 elections, the Congress won 15, BJP 11 and JD(S) two seats of the 28. However, the numbers tilted in favour of BJP after S T Somashekar (Yeshwantpur), Byrathi Basavaraj (KR Puram), Munirathna (RR Nagar) and K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout) joined BJP.

All parties are making efforts to retain the 2018 seat tally, while aiming for a marginal increase in share. The BJP is hoping to gain three more seats, while Congress is looking at an increase of four-five seats.

Yelahanka BJP MLA and BDA chairperson S R Vishwanath asserted that the party will not face any issue retaining existing seats.

Also read | Proven that it is '40% commission govt': Cong on BJP MLA's son's arrest for taking bribe in Karnataka

“Despite all allegations, the party’s development works are evident for the public to see. We will not have any issue retaining the seats we won in 2018,” he said, rubbishing claims of anti-incumbency.

According to party sources, it is looking at adding constituencies such as Jayanagar, Byatarayanapura and Hebbal to its tally.

“In Byatarayanapura, BJP’s A Ravi lost to Congress leader Krishna Byre Gowda by a small margin of 5,000 votes. There is anti-incumbency against Sowmya Reddy in Jayanagar and the party hope to cash in on that,” one BJP leader said.

In Hebbal (incumbent Congress MLA B S Suresh), the BJP expects stiff competition fron the grand old party.

With BJP’s senior MLA Suresh Kumar unlikely to contest from Rajajinagar this time, the Congress is putting its best foot forward to win this seat. The party is said to be considering former MLC Puttanna for the Rajajinagar ticket. He has won the Council election multiple times from Bengaluru Teachers’ constituency and is seen as an ideal candidate to fight Kumar’s clout.

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According to Congress sources, the party may give ticket to former minister Nagesh from Mahadevapura. “There’s anti-incumbency against sitting legislator Arvind Limbavali. The Mulbagal MLA Nagesh hails from Mahadevapura. We hope to win this seat,” sources said.

Basavanagudi is another constituency that the Congress wants to win. The party may field MLC U B Venkatesh, who has been vocal for the victims of the Guru Raghavendra bank and Vasishta credit co-operative society scams. The constituency is currently represented by BJP’s Ravi Subramanya.

Sources in both BJP and Congress acknowledge that it’s a neck-to-neck contest.

According to one Congress party functionary, it is not possible for either party to outnumber the other by a great margin. “We hope to at least achieve an equal share of seats with BJP in BBMP limits,” the functionary said.

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The JD(S), too, wants to increase its tally at least by five seats. The party’s Pancharatna campaign, which stresses on health and education infrastructure, will pay off, said MLC Thippeswamy said. The JD(S) is looking at reaching out to rural migrants to Bengaluru and residents of gated communities.

In all this, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has been working to build a base for the BBMP elections that did not happen, might end up eating into Congress or BJP votes.