Karnataka's Haveri witnesses interesting battle in Lok Sabha polls as Basavaraj Bommai seeks to extend BJP's winning run

Haveri (Karnataka) [India], May 4 : Haveri is witnessing an interesting battle between a former Chief Minister and a new face from Congress as the candidates step up their campaign for the Lok Sabha elections to be held in this central Karnataka constituency as part of the third phase of polling on May 7.
The BJP has been winning the seat since 2009. With its sitting MP Shivakumar Udasi not contesting, the party has fielded a formidable candidate in Basavaraj Bommai who was Chief Minister of the BJP government which lost to Congress in the 2023 assembly polls.
The Congress has posed its faith in Anandaswamy Gaddadevaramath, who is son of former MLA GS Gaddadevarmath.
While Bommai has been talking of "failures" of the Congress government in the state, Congress candidate is banking on the state government's delivery of the guarantees made by the party in its election manifesto for the assembly polls.
Haveri district is in the centre of Karnataka with equal distance from Bidar in the far north to Kollegal in the far south. It is also known as the gateway district to the northern districts of Karnataka
Basavaraj Bommai, a two-time MLC and four-time MLA, is a key face of BJP in the state. He was Chief Minister from July 2021 to May 2023 and has been talking to the people about the welfare initiatives during his term.
The advantage for Congress is that it won seven out of the eight Assembly segments in the parliamentary constituency in the last assembly polls. However, Bommai is seeking to turn this to his advantage by alleging that the Congress government has lagged in fulfilling its promises.
Haveri has eight legislative assembly segments- Shirahatti, Gadag, Ron, Hangal, Haveri, Byadgi, Hirekerur, and Ranibennur. Before the BJP started winning the seat, it was considered a Congress stronghold. The constituency has a large presence of the Lingayat community.
In 2019, BJP's Shivakumar Udasi retained the seat and got 6,83,660 votes. Congress' DR Patil secured 5,42,778 votes while BSP's Ayubkhan A Pathan came third with 7,479 votes.
Candidates from some other parties including Socialist Party India, Karnataka Rashtra Samiti and Samajwadi Party Karnataka as also some independents are in the fray.
Apart from banking on the guarantees of PM Modi, Bommai has also been raising local issues.
"There is a big question on women's safety. There was an incident of a Dalit woman being raped when CM was in town in Belgaum. A woman was raped in Haveri. The other day, that girl was killed in campus openly. There are so many other incidents. Law and order is a big issue and women's safety is a much more bigger issue," Bommai told ANI last month.
He has also accused the Congress government of pushing the state towards bankruptcy.
"The Congress party has made the state bankrupt in the name of guarantees. A whopping Rs 54,000 crore was being spent on guarantees but without any preparation. The taxpayers' money has been spent on guarantees thus pushing for the economic crisis. To cover up this, the union government is being blamed," Bommai said.
Bommai has also accused the Congress government of delaying action against JD-S leader Prajwal Revanna in the obscene video case.
He said BJP is for inquiry into the matter and Revanna has been able to flee the country because of the Congress government's consideration about Vokkaliga votes in the first phase of elections.
Polling was conducted on April 26 in 14 parliamentary constituencies of Karnataka during the second phase of the Lok Sabha election. The remaining seats will go to the polls on May 7 in the third phase. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.