Belagavi, which was once a BJP bastion, is increasingly becoming a Congress forte. In the 2023 Assembly elections, the BJP suffered greatly as a result of neglecting its senior leaders and prioritizing those from outside the district. The BJP just won seven seats out of the district’s eighteen constituencies. Three MLC seats were also lost.
The district was home to three MLCs and thirteen MLAs for the BJP before to the 2023 Assembly elections. Political observers claim that the saffron party has not made any efforts to make up ground lost in the border area. Additionally, the party made the same errors while naming its candidates for the next Lok Sabha elections.
Former chief minister Jagadish Shettar was nominated by the BJP in place of Mangala Angadi, the party’s incumbent member from Belagavi. Shettar rejoined the BJP in January after leaving it before of the 2023 Assembly elections to become an MLC in the Congress. Many people in Belagavi see Shettar, a former MLA from the Dharwad district, as an alien. In the next Lok Sabha elections, it would be intriguing to see whether the saffron party returns to power in Belagavi.
Three Congress MLAs, including former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, left the Grand Old Party and joined the saffron party in 2019, sparking the BJP’s wild ride in Belagavi. In the end, this contributed to the state’s JDSCongress administration collapsing and made BS Yediyurappa the chief minister.
However, once the turncoats were appointed as ministers, BJP supporters voiced their disapproval. Even after “outsiders” were awarded tickets for the 2023 Assembly elections, the BJP’s divisions persisted. In the Ramdurg Assembly segment, the party filed newcomer Chikka Revanna, excluding incumbent MLA Mahadevappa Yadwad on the grounds of his advanced age. In a same vein, the party declined to provide tickets to Maruti Ashtagi from Yamkanmardi, party faithful Raju Kage from Kagwad, former MLA Sanjay Patil from Belagavi Rural, and former DyCM Laxman Savadi from Athani.
As a consequence, a number of leaders, including Savadi, left the BJP and joined the Congress. Similar to this, Prabhakar Kore, a prominent BJP politician and former Rajya Sabha member, was not renominated to the Upper House due to his advanced age. As the state leadership continues to ignore local leaders and depend only on PM Narendra Modi’s charm to win the elections, BJP workers in Belagavi are in disbelief.
All eyes will now be on the June 4 results to see if the BJP will be successful in its political calculations and retake its former bastion of Belagavi.