Lok Sabha polls 2024: Cong woos every party, big and small, to sweep Karnataka

Determined to win most of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, Congress is getting help from members of the opposition INDIA alliance to mop up every single vote to overcome a formidable challenge from the BJP.

With barely 20 days left for the first phase of polling (April 26) to 14 constituencies in Karnataka, the ruling Congress is set to form a coordination committee of the INDIA grouping in the state.

Coordinated move

Karnataka Congress chief and deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar has called a meeting of nine political outfits to prevent any splintering of the anti-BJP votes.

These parties are the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), DMK, NCP (Sharad Pawar), the Samajwadi Party, the Muslim League and the All India Forward Bloc.

Speaking to The Federal, Congress spokesperson Ramesh Babu said: “The move is part of a national-level plan to synchronise campaign strategy, cadre management, joint rallies, and election messaging among the allies.

Critical votes

“This will help the Congress to achieve its target of winning at least 20 of the 28 constituencies,” he said.

Describing the seven-phase nationwide Lok Sabha battle as a “fight between democratic forces and communal and dictatorial forces”, Shivakumar said the coordination panel will meet often to discuss strategies to consolidate anti-BJP votes in favour of the Congress.

The Congress veteran admitted that every single vote was important.

Electoral damage

Shivakumar underlined how votes garnered by smaller parties often decide an electoral contest one way or the other.

He cited how former prime minister HD Deve Gowda lost as a Congress-JD(S) coalition candidate from the Tumkur Lok Sabha seat by 13,000 votes to the BJP when the CPI nominee took away 17,727 invaluable votes.

Narrow wins

In the 2023 Assembly elections in Karnataka, one candidate won by just 16 votes and another by 105 votes in multi-cornered contests. Another candidate won by just one vote.

“We don’t want a similar situation in 2024. This is precisely why we want all alliance partners to be united,” Shivakumar said. “It is not important how many votes they bring to the table. We are keen on the people who follow their ideology.”

AAP’s cooperation

Shanthala Damle, vice president of AAP’s Karnataka chapter, told The Federal that his party has a vote share of minimum 5 per cent in the state. It wields influence in Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Hubballi and Belagavi and in isolated rural areas. “Our votes were transferred to the Congress in 2023.”

Mukhymantri Chandru, the AAP President in Karnataka, added that the central message of the joint campaign would be the need to protect basic and constitutional rights.

Anti-BJP front

A popular theatre and film actor, as well as an orator, Chandru said: “AAP is primarily fighting against the communal dictatorship of the Modi government. As the idea of INDIA block is similar, we are supporting the Congress.

“The grand agenda of both the AAP and Congress is to defeat the BJP. On that count there are no differences between us. Our national president, Arvind Kejriwal, directed us to support the Congress, and we will abide by his direction.”

Assembly elections

He said all AAP units in Karnataka have been told to work with Congress workers and leaders. He said Shivakumar has been asked to accord due respect to AAP cadres and allow them to share the dais.

The Congress stormed to power in Karnataka in May last year, ending five years of BJP reign. The BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) have joined hands against the Congress in the parliamentary elections.