The Janata Dal (Secular) is in a peculiar situation where the party projects itself as the face of the Vokkaliga clan in Karnataka but is unable to participate in the celebrations of Kempegowda Jayanti, in honour of the famous chieftain of the community who founded Bengaluru.
The JD(S) which is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party now, found Itself in a spot when the ruling Congress in Karnataka left out the names of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and current union minister for heavy industries and steel HD Kumaraswamy, its former allies, from the invitations.
In 2022 also the JD(S) could not participate in the inauguration of the 108-foot-tall bronze statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, called the Statue of Prosperity, in Bengaluru, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as it was an ally of the Congress then and had together formed the government in 2018 with the support of the Congress displacing the BJP dispensation led by chief minister BS Yediyurappa.
“Kempegowda does not belong to anyone,” said Kumaraswamy, adding that he belongs to Karnataka. “I was made aware that our names were dropped from the invitation, but I won’t give much importance to it. I am not the one to make an issue when my name is left out of invitations anytime.”
Vokkaligas, who form around 14 to 15 per cent of the voting population in the state, are a politically influential community in Karnataka.
Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, also a Vokkaliga, has been trying to push himself as the community’s face in Karnataka, citing the “waning impact” of JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda, who is still in recovery mode. Shivakumar wants to project himself as the face of this influential community and ensure that the names of Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy are not mentioned.
Speaking at the 515th Jayanthi of Kempegowda at the Kanteerava stadium, Shivakumar said, “It is all our responsibility to nurture and grow the legacy of Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda. He took care of all segments of people when he ruled Bengaluru. It is only appropriate that representatives of all communities participate in these celebrations. Baba Saheb Ambedkar says that those who forget history can’t create history. We should not forget the legacy of Kempe Gowda. The legacy he has left behind has transformed many lives. The city he founded over five centuries ago, has grown immensely. It is important that we retain the core culture and values of the city he founded. The BBMP has released Rs 1 lakh to each taluk to conduct debates on Kempegwda for school students. We will share the modalities of the programmes that need to be carried out in each of the taluks.”
Shivakumar’s brother, DK Suresh, a four-time MP from the Bengaluru Rural seat, which was known as the fiefdom of the DK brothers and a Vokkaliga stronghold, faced bitter defeat at the hands of Dr CN Manjunath in the recent Lok Sabha polls. Dr Manjunath, Deve Gowda’s son-in-law and the National Democratic Alliance candidate, trounced Suresh by a whopping margin of 2,68,094 votes in his own bastion. This is one defeat that Shivakumar called a “personal” one, which he later admitted was borne out of overconfidence and inadequate planning.
“Kempegowda must be respected by all; he built Bengaluru as we see it today. Ignoring people is not fair and Kempegowda Jayanti should be a celebration across party lines, across communities. Last year, the Congress did not even celebrate it, but now suddenly they are indulging in this political drama,” said Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, a former BJP minister who was overseeing the statue project and unveiling programme as he is the vice-chairman of the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Heritage Area Development Authority.
The inauguration of the statue took place just before the 2023 Karnataka assembly polls and the BJP had hoped to get sizable support from the community with the move.
During the 2023 assembly elections, the BJP had been confident in its ability to breach the Vokkaliga fortress and southern Mysore region, including Mandya, with the win in the Krishnarajapete by-election in 2019. At the time, all seven seats in Mandya were won by the JD(S).
Kempegowda is considered to be the man who founded modern-day Bengaluru and is a Vokkaliga icon. As a build-up to the statue event, BJP leaders were seen heli-hopping across the state collecting “mrittika” (“holy soil”) from more than 22,000 places to develop a garden around the statue.
The JD(S) at that time raised a hue and cry over not being invited by the then-ruling BJP as the party was in opposition, having joined hands with the Congress to form the government in 2018. It called this an insult to the entire Vokkaliga community in the state.
“We had invited everyone at that time for the event. Basavaraj Bommai, the BJP CM then, and I had personally addressed invitation letters to various dignitaries across party lines, including Deve Gowda and Siddaramaiah,” said Narayan when asked by News18 why the JD(S) family was ignored and not invited when the BJP was in power.
Kumaraswamy had then said that his father and former PM Deve Gowda got a call from CM Bommai, inviting him to the event, but the invitation letter was handed over by someone to the police personnel stationed at Deve Gowda’s residence.
Cut to 2023, the JD(S) forged an alliance with the BJP just before the Lok Sabha polls and won two out of the four seats it contested as part of the NDA. Now, once again, it is unable to be part of the celebrations as the JD(S) is in the opposite camp of the Congress, which is the ruling party in Karnataka. Interestingly, Kumaraswamy, who is now an ally of the BJP, won the Lok Sabha election from Mandya, a Vokkaliga-dominated seat, by a huge margin of over 2.5 lakh votes.
On the question of whether this is a fight for Vokkaliga supremacy, Narayan said that it is the people who are the masters of a community. “Why do individuals want to become masters? Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have lost control over the Old Mysore region and so they are going about this political drama,” he said.
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