B. Aravinda Shetty

Bengaluru: Historical victory of BJP in Belagavi Mahanagara Palike has paved the way for wiping out of Maharashtra Ekikarana Samiti (MES), which has dominated the urban local body for three decades.
Elections results indicated that the majority of Marathi-speaking people have voted in favour of mainstream parties and rejected the language and border issue-based politics of MES.

However, instead of contesting elections on Kannada vs. Marathi, BJP has contested the elections on the symbol.
To win the elections, BJP adopted a strategy of giving more than 60 per cent of seats to Marathi-speaking people and MES leaders. BJP requested Marathi people to join mainstream politics instead of supporting language-based politics. Meanwhile, two BJP MLAs, Abhay Patil from Belagavi South and Anil Benake from Belagavi North constituencies, evolved to win the elections by identifying potential local Marathi leaders.
Unexpected by the aggressive poll strategy of the ruling BJP, MES has found it difficult to field a candidate for all 58 seats. It has been difficult to choose a capable candidate to fight against BJP candidates. Many MES supporters have joined the BJP before the elections. Mr Patil has handpicked Marathi-speaking people while allotting tickets in Marathi-dominated wards.

“ All these years, both BJP and Congress were afraid to antagonize MES. Both national parties have never contested a direct fight against MES. In fact, MES was considered as B team of BJP in Belagavi. Aggressive Hindutva agenda of MES hinders the BJP to make inroad in Mahanagara Palike”, said senior journalist and Kannada activist, Ashok Chandargi.

Marathi people have voted for development because BJP is in power both at the Centre and State. Moreover, BJP has two MLAs in the city (Belagavi North and Belagavi South constituency). Fed up with the divisive politics of MES, people have decided to join mainstream politics. MES has completely wiped out in the district, and Belagavi Palike results also send a strong message to Shiv Sena, Mr Chandargi remarked.

Polarisation started against MES in 1999. After it lost the Assembly seat in the 2018 Elections, its hold in the Belagavi district declined. However, in recently held Belagavi Lok Sabha bypolls, the MES candidate secured 1.17 lakh votes, the party was under the wrong impression that it will regain its hold in Belagavi politics, but the ruling BJP's aggressive elections strategy of contesting polls on symbol has given a jolt to MES.
"Because of BJP internal bickering, MES had secured 1.17 lakh votes in Lok Sabha by-polls," Mr Chandargi explained.

Matured Marathi voters want development in their wards; they don’t want to be involved in language and border politics. BJP has capitalized the same and fielded suitable candidates to win the hearts of Marathi voters, added the senior journalist.

Read: Municipal election results 2021: BJP creates history in Belagavi, Congress leads in Kalaburagi

On the other hand, Congress is a divided house. Its leaders have not been actively involved in the campaign. The party has failed in distributing tickets to winning candidates; few leaders have contested as rebel candidates.