Constituency Watch Dharwad: Union minister Pralhad Joshi eyes record fifth straight win

Aksheev Thakur

New Delhi, May 1

The Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency is gearing up for a straight fight between the BJP and the Congress with both making every effort to woo the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community.

The incumbent MP and Union minister Pralhlad Joshi has been representing the Dharwad constituency since 2004 and is vying for a record fifth term.

A closer look at the constituency from 1952-2019 reveals that no candidate has won the seat for a record five times. In 1952, DP Karmarkar contested on the Congress ticket and won the election.

Subsequently, he won the election from the seat thrice from 1952 to 1962. Another Congress candidate DK Naikar won the election from the seat four times from 1980-1991, but could not win for the fifth time.

Until the 1996 Lok Sabha poll, Dharwad was a Congress bastion. However, after the Idgah maidan controversy in 1994, it became a BJP bastion. In the early 90s, the ABVP demanded the national flag be hoisted here on Independence Day and Republic Day. Some Muslim organisations opposed saying the ground was meant to be used only for religious purposes. The BJP hoisted the flag in 1994. Six persons were killed when the police fired on agitators.

In 1996, BJP’s Vijay Sankeshwar won the seat and since then the party has remained undefeated.

In March, Dingaleshwar Swami, a Lingayat seer of Shirahatti Fakireshwar Math, said Lingayats were ill-treated by Joshi and demanded that the BJP should change the candidate. Swami filed the nomination and vowed to defeat Joshi. He recently withdrew his nomination. With the nomination being withdrawn, the BJP is confident of winning the constituency.

In the eight Assembly segments of Dharwad, both parties have equal representation.

With the murder of Congress corporator Niranjan Hiremath’s daughter Neha Hiremath in Hubbali, the narrative that the Congress appeases Muslims is also helping the BJP. While Joshi’s clout has grown over the years, the Congress has fielded youth leader from the Kuruba community Vinod Asuti who is considered a close aide of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Asuti, however, is relying heavily on the welfare schemes of the Congress implemented by the state government and the support of AHINDA (an acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) group, which backed Siddaramaiah in the 2023 Assembly poll.

The major poll issue is the non-implementation of the project linking Kalasa-Banduri streams with the Malaprabha river. The project is aimed at resolving the drinking water issue. The project requires Centre’s clearance and Joshi is being blamed for not securing it so far.