6 regions that make Karnataka's political map

THE KARNATAKA COOKIE: Six regions in the state and 224 seats in the Assembly.

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Keywords: Karnataka Regions, Opinion Poll

If electoral politics in the country has moved from the national to the state in the last decade, within Karnataka this period has witnessed a rise of different political regions as distinct political entities. Each of the regions of Karnataka has its own historical significance, political dynamics, caste equations and local socio-cultural specificities. The findings of the Deccan Herald-CNN-IBN--CSDS confirm the crucial role of the various regions within the state.

Southern Karnataka is the ‘heart’ of the Old Mysore region. This was part of the princely state of Mysore in the pre-Independence days. It accounts for nearly one fourth of the seats in the state (51 seats).

Southern Karnataka is also a region where one of the dominant castes in the state—the Vokkaliga community—has a significant political presence. The region has historically seen a stiff competition between the Congress and the Janata Party/Dal. The BJP did attempt to carve out a base and has achieved some success.

As the campaign picks up, the pre-poll indicates that the fight in most constituencies is between the Congress and the Janata Dal (S). The BJP appears to be very much the third force at the ‘margins’ in this region. The JD (S) enjoys the support of a majority of Vokkaligas, but not the kind of en-bloc support that it may have hoped for to neutralize the support to the Congress among the dalits and Muslims in this region. If the JD(S) is the party of the socially dominant and the well off, all the marginalized and poor have aligned with the Congress.

The Bangalore region has always been ‘politically important’. The recent delimitation exercise has underscored the presence of this region. It accounts for 36 seats, around one-sixth of those in the state. The urban areas in the Bangalore region had seen BJP victories. When the Janata Party came to power in the state in the 1980s, it put up a creditable performance in the city. Off late, the Congress has been capturing a majority of the seats in the metropolis. In the rural segments of the Bangalore region it has mostly been a contest between the Congress and the Janata Dal (S).