The electoral arena in Karnataka in the run-up to the State Assembly elections 2023, on May 10, has turned out to be a battleground that is outpacing any other in living memory. There are many reasons being advanced for this: Karnataka has been the stepping stone of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to South India and needs to be retained at all costs; the State is an economic powerhouse, particularly in new technologies; there are elections to important States as well as to Parliament in the offing.
The Congress Party has a well-tested and rooted leadership in the State apart from the fact that Mallikarjun Kharge, the recently elected all-India Congress President, hails from the State. The Congress’s electoral prospects, elsewhere and hereafter, may be crucially dependent on this election. The Gandhi family in general, and Rahul Gandhi in particular, enjoy great moral standing in the State, with Mr. Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra adding to this.
The Janata Dal (Secular) led by H.D. Deve Gowda, the former Prime Minister of India, is a local brew of a farming community, a dominant caste and with embedded memories of pluralism cohabiting a region. There is some truth in all these narratives. But there are also ideological contestations behind the escalating rhetorical flourish, biting satire, lampooning of opponents, and promises of freebies. These contestations are redrawing the political contours of the political parties in the fray, particularly the BJP and Congress, and this shift would have an important bearing on the future of electoral democracy in India, including the idea of progress.
