Election 2023: Uttara Kannada poised for political change?

Karwar: Following the resignation of the tall Maratha politician of Uttara Kannada district, SL Ghotnekar, from the Congress party after a four-decade association, politics in Uttara Kannada is set to pause for adjustments and re-adjustments ahead of the 2023 elections.

The DCC president Bheemanna Naik is now caught in a vortex of insecurity and uncertainty. On the one hand, he is afraid that his post as DCC president will be taken away sooner or later due to upheavals in the party, secondly, he is not sure if the party will give him a ticket to contest or even if he does get the ticket he is not sure of winning in Sirsi against larger than life image of Vishveshwar Hegade Kageri of BJP who is also the speaker of the Assembly.

Bheemanna Naik is also facing adversity from the senior leader RV Deshpande. His heavy investment in the hospitality business in Sirsi town is not giving him the expected returns. These events in his political career in the last couple of years have made him take decisions that are inimical to his work culture. To secure his place in district politics he took some hasty decisions like recommending the removal the block president of Banavasi CF Naik with the party-state command. In a second controversial decision, Bheemanna Naik has sought to bring back Ravi Naik in the top position in the Sirsi Assembly constituency as a replacement for CF Naik. Ravi Naik indulged in anti-party activities in 2018.

RV Deshpande is facing a double-edged problem because of the big changes in politics that have happened since the senior leader SL Ghotnekar quit the party (the state Party president DK Shivakumar has yet to accept his resignation). He is not sure if he can still muster the 60,000 votes of Marathas for the INC as it had been possible for him when SL Ghotnekar was with him. This event has had many effects on the leadership and cadres of the INC.

The resignation of SL Ghotnekar has weakened the INC's top state-level leader, 8 times MLA RV Deshpande. Even today He is a popular leader who can win. But without the support of Ghotnekar and his group of Maratha voters -at least 20,000 in his own account and a total of 60,000 Maratha voters for INC, things might not be easier for Deshpande.

Ghotnekar is also trying to get Maratha leaders from Maharashtra to campaign in Haliyal. On the other hand, DK Shivakumar may try to placate Ghotnekar and keep him in the party. One option he has is to allow Ghotnekar to run against Haliyal in order to persuade RV Deshpande to step down. But as a reward, the INC can field RV Deshpande's son Prashanth Deshpande to contest from the Yellapur constituency. In another step, RV Deshpande can be sent to the upper house as an MLC and if INC gets enough majority to form the government he can even be a minister again.

Ghotnekar has no other base but the Haliyal constituency. But accommodating him as an INC candidate in Haliyal with Deshpande on the offensive may not get the right result for the INC and if Ghotnkar decides to contest from JDS he might not win with his 20,000 votes but also make INC lose not just in Haliyal-Joida but also ruin the chances of INC in Yellapur.