“Earlier, MPs used Hindutva as an excuse not to do any work. There is a limit to its utility,” says a senior BJP leader from Mangaluru, a coastal city about 350 km from Bengaluru.
Caste faultlines are also opening up, as analysts see rising resentment among the Billava community — OBCs who have traditionally been the Sangh Parivar’s foot soldiers in the region — over alleged neglect by the party and lack of political representation.
The BJP, however, has adapted, with the candidates largely avoiding rhetoric such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks accusing the Congress of planning to redistribute wealth to Muslims.
The party has also dropped its three MPs from the region, who are known as Hindutva firebrands. While Nalin Kumar Kateel and Anantkumar Hegde haven’t been fielded at all this time, Shobha Karandlaje was moved to Bangalore North after “Go back Shobha” protests erupted in several parts of her Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency.
“The BJP has no card other than the communal card and it has overplayed it,” says Phani Rajanna, an Udupi-based political analyst.
The region has three Lok Sabha seats: Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, and Udupi-Chikmagalur (which covers the coastal Udupi region as well as neighbouring Chikmagalur). The former goes to the polls on 7 May and the latter two on 26 April.
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‘Ending polarisation biggest form of development’
The scintillating smell of frying fish fills the air in the narrow bylanes of Mangaluru’s bandar region (Old Fort area). Narayana Hotel, one of the city’s landmark eateries, is busier than usual, even though it’s around 3.30 pm.
Almost oblivious to the chaos outside his quaint office, 48-year-old Jayaprakash is busy tabulating numbers of recent fertiliser shipments.
“We need Hindutva but religion is our private affair. In business, we can’t bring these factors in as we deal with everybody,” he says.
Jayaprakash, who is from Bantwal, a suburb of Mangaluru, adds that communal clashes have declined — at least in intensity — over the past few years as they impact livelihoods.
The penetration of the Congress’s guarantees is another factor that’s adding to the party’s attraction, say local residents. Implemented after the party’s victory in the 2023 assembly polls, these include free bus rides for women, 200 units of free power to all households, and financial assistance to various sections including women heads of households and unemployed young people.
Jayaprakash adds: “We vote based on whether basic amenities have been provided. But since it is the Lok Sabha elections, we have to look at issues like national security and other aspects, too.” But he is clear that “Hindutva and development are two different things”.
Just one road away, 29-year-old Thouseef, a department store owner, says his idea of development in the region is communal harmony.
“If Hindus and Muslims get the feeling that we are one, that is the biggest development in Mangaluru,” he says.
This, in a region that has reported high levels of communal clashes, from the tensions over the ban on the hijab in educational institutions to tit-for-tat killings.
Between 2020 and 2023, Karnataka recorded at least 107 communal incidents, according to the state government. Of these, 72 incidents were reported from just five districts (Shivamogga, Davanagere, Uttara Kannada, Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada), where Hindutva has been the BJP’s main poll plank.
Some of this has backfired on the BJP, especially when three tit-for-tat murders took place within eight days in July 2022 — including that of a Yuva Morcha worker, Praveen Nettaru. This led to an outpouring of anger from pro-Hindutva workers against state BJP leaders, especially Kateel, the three-term MP for Dakshina Kannada. Protesters waylaid Kateel’s car and nearly toppled it when the latter came to pay his last respects to Nettaru.
In the assembly elections that were held the following year, the Congress made a few dents in this BJP stronghold.
In 2018, the BJP had secured 16 out of 19 assembly seats in the three coastal districts — Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi — but the Congress won seven in 2023. In neighbouring Chikmagalur, the BJP had won four out of five seats in 2018 but the Congress won all five in 2023.
The absence of any initiative by BJP or pro-Hindutva leaders in the Sowjanya rape and murder case is also likely to play a role, analysts and residents say.
In October 2012, Sowjanya, a 17-year-old pre-university student, was kidnapped on her way in Ujire, near the spiritual centre of Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada district. The next day, her body was found half-naked near the Nethravathi River. There have been allegations that the main culprits are being protected by powerful religious leaders. The case continues to be heard in Karnataka High Court and one person who was arrested and jailed for six years has been found to be innocent.
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Resentful foot soldiers
Sunil Bajilikere, a hotelier based in Mangaluru, spent much of his life from the age of 10 onwards as a worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the BJP. But nowadays, he has distanced himself from the BJP and works with the Congress.
“There was a time when the Sangh Parivar had a stronghold over the coast. [But] several prominent faces of Hindutva have disassociated themselves from these organisations as it is an issue only during elections,” he says.
He adds that since he was 10 years old, he has heard the RSS and its affiliates advance a “narrative” about the “dangers” posed by minorities and how the Muslim population would overtake that of Hindus — but none of that has come true.
He further says: “People are moving away from Hindutva and want bandhutva (camaraderie). With Hindutva, these people (BJP) have not fought to get jobs…there are big industries like MRPL (Mangaluru Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd) in the SEZ (Special Economic Zone) but none of the locals are getting jobs. They just want to see dead bodies fall. All MPs’ children are studying at English-medium schools, becoming doctors, engineers and going abroad. But when it comes to such issues as hijab and Hindutva…those who end up in jail for offences are Billava boys.”
Billavas, traditionally toddy tappers, make up the single largest caste group in Dakshina Kannada.
Estimates by political parties show that they account for nearly 4 lakh out of a voter base of nearly 17.5 lakh in the district. Muslims are about the same number. The Bunts, Christians, Vokkaligas, Mogaveeras and Gowdas are among the other prominent communities.
The Billavas have traditionally been a strong vote bank for the BJP and served as foot soldiers for Sangh Parivar-linked groups such as the Bajrang Dal, the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Hindu Jagrana Vedike, among others.
But the community is demanding its dues this time, say observers, pointing to anger over political representation. The forward-caste Bunts are seen as having secured disproportionate representation compared to the Billavas, despite the latter being the BJP’s backbone in the region.
The Bunts and Billavas share a feudal history, with the former having been landlords and the latter their workers.
Brijesh Chowta, the BJP’s Dakshina Kannada candidate, is a Bunt, whereas his opponent, R. Padmaraj Poojary of the Congress, is a Billava. Kateel, the constituency’s former MP, is also a Bunt.
In neighbouring Udupi-Chikmagalur, the equation is reversed, with the BJP fielding a Billava candidate (Kota Shrinivas Poojary) and the Congress a Bunt (Jayaprakash Hegde).
Rajanna says Billavas are in a “Catch-22” situation where they are reluctant either to back the BJP, which has ignored them, or to side with the Congress, which courts the support of the Bearys — a sizable Muslim community mostly found in these parts. The two communities have seen many of their young people get involved with radical outfits and clash with each other.
Residents, analysts and observers say that young people who are unable to secure good jobs are recruited into such organisations and do small-time work to eke out a living. The Congress is trying to break this cycle with its financial assistance programmes like Yuva Nidhi — aid of Rs 1500 or Rs 3000 to unemployed diploma holders or graduates, respectively. The BJP is forced to respond in economic terms and not rely on emotions, they add.
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