On B S Yediyurappa turf, Congress caught in a clash between friends-turned-rivals

Located on the banks of the Tunga river, Shivamogga, popularly called the “gateway to the Western Ghats”, is the site of one of the high-voltage election contests, with the spark fuelled by the rebellion of longtime BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa.

The constituency, officially still referred to as Shimoga, is a BJP stronghold that votes in the third phase on May 7. It was initially supposed to be a contest between the BJP and the Congress but turned into a three-way fight after Eshwarappa entered the contest against his longtime colleague and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s son B Y Raghavendra, the sitting MP, after his son was denied the ticket from Haveri. The Congress candidate is Geetha Shivaraj Kumar, the wife of film actor Shivaraj Kumar and daughter of former Chief Minister S Bangarappa, who is banking on the division of BJP votes.

While Hindutva figures prominently in the election campaigns of Eshwarappa and Raghavendra — both are contesting in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi — the Congress, like in other parts of the state, is reaching out to voters over its welfare scheme guarantees. But, for many people in the BJP bastion the strategy has failed to have much of an impact.

Issues such as an increase in the Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) and deaths related to it and the decline of the Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel plant and Mysore Paper Mills in Bhadravati due to lack of government support are mostly missing from conversations. Instead, what impact Eshwarappa, an OBC leader, may have on the contest is among the most-discussed topics.

In the village of Thirthahalli, a few kilometres from the home of national poet Kuvempur, Ramachandrapp, a local, says, “There are a lot of