Parties design campaigns on caste calculations

From 1978 onwards, only two candidates have shared the seat between them at Hangal

As campaign fever is catching up in villages of Hangal taluk, which will go to bypolls on October 30, the mainstream political parties have designed their campaign strategy based on caste lines in the constituency, where the electorate has not favoured any one political party continuously.

What is interesting in the constituency is that from 1978 onwards, only two candidates have shared the seat between them. While one is the former Minister C.M. Udasi (BJP) who won six times and whose demise has necessitated the byelection, the other one is former Minister Manohar Tahasildar (Congress) who after having represented the constituency four times is out of the race now.

In a constituency where Lingayat community is numerically strong, it has been witnessed that consolidated votes of other communities have tilted the victory in favour of the non-Lingayat candidates. As if in a bid to stop any such consolidation, the BJP has lined up leaders from every community to canvass for it. The party has come out with its own assessment of number of voters belonging to various castes and communities which puts Lingayats on the top with an estimated over 70,000 voters. As per its assessment, Muslim voters are second in line, which however is disputed by some. According to political observers, the JD(S) choice of Muslim candidate for Hangal is probably based on this number.