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In Gundakurthi, one of the remotest villages in Karnataka’s Chittapur constituency, 26-year-old Manikanth Rathod — accompanied by 30-35 odd supporters — is visiting door-to-door with folded hands. Paying close attention to the grievances aired by locals, he firmly holds their hands and promises to bring in a wave of development to change their lives.
A youth icon, as his supporters tell me, Rathod is BJP’s young firebrand leader to take on Priyank Kharge, who is eyeing a hat-trick in this high-stakes prestige battle as Chittapur has traditionally been a Congress bastion. AICC president Mallikarjuna Kharge won his ninth election from this constituency in 2008 before handing over the reins to his son to move to Delhi as Gulbarga MP in 2009.
An unprecedented choice many would say, Rathod pipped eight contenders — including BJP’s Yuva Morcha general secretary Arvind Chavan — to emerge as the party’s pick, even if that triggered high-profile resignations.
Rathod, however, remains confident and self-assured in his strength. “Right now, we are campaigning at Mallikarjun Kharge’s wife’s village. Look at the number of people backing me. You will find similar scenes everywhere. My candidature was on the back of this love and support that I have been receiving from people for the last three years. They have seen me grow from strength to strength,” Rathod tells News18.
Standing near a temple surrounded by a mixed crowd of senior citizens, youth activists, and children, Rathod sharply targets Priyank Kharge for being a ‘missing MLA’ who visits his constituency only to cut ribbons for new projects. His election pitch is received with a round of applause, followed by slogans in his name.
While contesting as an MLA may mark a new beginning for Rathod, his affidavit, on the other hand, is not a clean slate. He is one of the most controversial candidates to contest the assembly elections and that too from a constituency that the BJP is determined to win.
LONG CRIMINAL RECORD
The 26-year-old leader has at least 40 criminal cases registered against him in Karnataka, Telangana, and Maharashtra. Some of these cases include serious crimes such as attempts to murder, smuggling of drugs & narcotics, illegal possession of firearms, and illegal transportation of rice and milk powder packets meant for the poor through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
The Kalaburagi Police Commissioner had also banished him from the city for a year for being a habitual offender and a rabble-rouser. Rathod managed to secure a stay order from the court. In November last year, he was also briefly arrested for threatening to shoot Congress MLA Priyank Kharge.
When asked about the possibility of his criminal past dampening his prospects, Rathod dubbed all the cases “fabricated and politically motivated”.
“All these cases have been planted by the Kharges and their followers. They even tried to murder me. The whole Chittapur knows I am an innocent person. I have filed a complaint with the Lokayukta against Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyank Kharge as to how they have been misusing lands allocated by the government to build Ambedkar Smarak Kalyana. They also duped the Lingayat and the Koli community by failing to build institutions in their name.”
CASTE FACTOR & SYMPATHY VOTES
Rathod says he is following the footsteps of late BJP MLA Valmiki Naik, who contested from Chittapur four times and won the seat by defeating Priyank Kharge in the 2009 by-election.
“Valmiki Naik was like a father figure to me. My initial days in politics were spent in campaigning for him. He was also a stalwart leader because he shattered the dominance of the Kharge family and paved the way for the BJP. I am confident of repeating what he managed to do in 2009 because I know the pulse of the people,” Rathod says.
What also ties them together is the caste aspect. Both Naik and Rathod belong to the Lambani (Banjara) community, which roughly has a population between 35,000 and 40,000 in Chittapur. News18 is attributing this data to the rough estimates put forth by both BJP and Congress leaders in the area.
With Rathod’s candidature, the BJP is trying to strike a balance between the caste and the youth factor to swing votes in its favour. The party is also hoping to derive political brownie points through its recently reconfigured internal reservation matrix which splits the earlier 17 per cent SC quota into three parts — 6 per cent for the most backward SC (Left) group, 5.5 per cent for the SC (Right) group, and 4.5 per cent for the SC (touchable) which includes the Lambani and Bhovi community. Priyank Kharge hails from the SC-Right group.
But what could pose a big challenge to the BJP is the community that forms the bulwark of its core support base — the Lingayats with an estimated population of 65,000. The unforeseen selection of an inexperienced, history-sheeter like Rathod triggered the exit of Vishwanath Patil Hebbal, a three-time MLA from Chittapur and an influential leader from the Panchamasali Lingayat community.
Both Hebbal and youth leader Arvind Chavan slammed the BJP for promoting ‘outsiders with criminal background’. The Congress also hopes to capitalise on the popularity of other Lingayat heavyweights and BJP turncoats like Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi. Political pundits also believe another BJP turncoat Baburao Chinchansur will be instrumental in fetching votes from the numerically strong Koli community
FIRM ON TURNING THE ODDS IN HIS FAVOUR, SAYS RATHOD
“Look around me. Every second person standing here with me is a Lingayat. Hebbal has been disloyal to the party. He won Chittapur as a JDS leader, before switching to the BJP for political survival. He wants to remain in politics using money and muscle power. But BJP is a party that recognises real talent, and that is why when Hebbal was denied a ticket for being a non-performer, he directed his frustration towards me. Both Savadi and Shettar’s joinings will make no difference. I am not trying to appease any one community. I want to win with everyone’s support,” he says.
He adds: “The moment I become an MLA, I promise to snatch away 50 per cent of the ill-gotten wealth that the Kharges usurped from the Kalyana-Karnataka region.”
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