Battle of turncoats and proxies

KALABURAGI: A battle of turncoats between two leaders with 30 years of rivalry between them — that’s what the electoral contest for Afzalpur, in north Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district, is all about.

Malikayya Guttedar, the sitting Congress member of the legislative assembly, switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after he failed to get a minister’s post despite winning six times from the constituency. MY Patil, who won the seat only once since their rivalry began in 1994, moved to the Congress from the BJP out of concern that the party might pick Guttedar as its candidate for Afzalpujr instead of him.

Before joining the BJP, Guttedar had been a member of the Congress, Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular). Patil was previously a part of the Janata Party, Janata Dal (Secular) and the Karnataka Janata Paksha, which the BJP’S chief ministerial candidate this time around, BS Yeddyurappa, formed after leaving the party in 2013. But the electoral fight is also a proxy battle for senior leaders of the Congress and the BJP. “I wanted to be a part of the Congress but Mallikarjun Kharge was the one who pushed me to quit the party because he cannot tolerate another big leader emerging from the region,” Guttedar said, referring to the senior Dalit leader in Congress.

Patil said he felt betrayed by Yeddyurappa. “I was the only big leader from the region to move to the KJP with him in 2013. And yet, five years later, I am rewarded with this,” he said. One senior Congress leader said in jest that there were only two parties in Afzalpur, the Guttedar party and Patil party. “Since 1994, both have been involved in a joy ride, switching parties at the drop of a hat,” he added on condition of anonymity.

In 1994, when Guttedar moved to the Janata Dal, the two were involved in their first electoral face-off. Since then, out of five assembly elections, Guttedar won four, losing in 2004 to Patil.

The difference this time around is the roles the two have been assigned. Guttedar has been tasked with managing the BJP campaign in Kalaburagi, Bidar and Yadgir that account for 24 of the 224 assembly seats in Karnataka. Patil has been given the job of scuttling the BJP campaign, using his knowledge of the party’s electoral machinery. According to Guttedar, while many people mocked the constituency and the two candidates, they did not understand what the battle was really fought on.

Another issue that has generated controversy has been the state government’s move to recognise Lingayats as a religious minority. Guttedar said this would backfire on the Congress. Patil said the issue has no resonance in the polls.