The Vokkaligas of Karnataka and their tryst with political history

H D Deve Gowda taking oath as Prime Minister of India was one of the biggest days for the Vokkaliga community, the second most powerful caste in Karnataka.

Like one has seen in all elections, political parties look to seek the backing of either the Vokkaliga or Lingayat community, who have had a history of voting en-masse for a political party.

Gowda and his family on their part still control the Vokkaliga vote bank and in the upcoming elections, the entire focus is on this community who are predominant in the Old-Mysuru region. The Vokkaligas unlike the Lingayats do not have a pan-Karnataka presence. They are stronger in the Old-Mysuru Region and constitute 14 per cent of the electorate.

Vokkaligas have been primarily been a 100 per cent agrarian community. Their biggest hero is Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda, the founder of Bengaluru. During the British rule, the Vokkaligas were restricted to farming, but post independence in 1947, everything changed for them and they became key players in Karnataka's electoral process.

Between 1947 and 1956, the Vokkaliga community controlled the Old-Mysuru region. However that changed with the reorganisation of the state. With this came in the Lingayats, a dominant caste in North Karnataka. The Lingayats also have a sizeable population in Old-Mysuru region as well.

In the run up to the reorganisation of Karnataka, the Vokkaliga community was not in favour of it. They felt that the Mysuru region which was under the Maharaja was already well developed and merging the Mumbai-Karnataka region and Hyderabad Karnataka region, which were underdeveloped would be an added burden on the exchequer of the state.

However the then chief minister of the state, Kengal Hanumanthaiah, a tall Vokkaliga leader was all in favour of unification. He told his community members that opposing a unification would mean that they would never be forgiven. He explained to them that opposing a unification on caste and political lines would not go down too well.

On expected lines, Hanumanthaiah lost power and in his place came S Nijalingappa a strongman among the Lingayats. Since the unification of the state in 1956, the Vokkaligas have not had a chief minister for 38 years. It was in 1994, that H D Deve Gowda became the first Vokkaliga chief minister since 1956.

Between the years 1956 and 1973, Karnataka has seen four Lingayat chief ministers- S Nijalingappa, B D Jatti, S R Kanthi and Veerendra Patil. The Lingayat supremacy was broken briefly between 1972 and 1983, when Devraj Urs, a Kshatriya and Gundu Rao a Brahmin ruling the state. In the year 1983, Ramkrishna Hegde, a Brahmin went on to become Karnataka's first non-Congress chief minister. Hegde, however was seen as an uncrowned Lingayat leader, thanks to his mass appeal among the community, especially in the North Karnataka region.

In a bid to counter Hegde, the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi propped Veerendra Patil as the leader of the Congress. It paid dividends and the Congress went onto sweep the elections by hitting the 184 mark in the 224 member assembly. However the Congress bungled and unceremoniously dumped Patil on health grounds, leading to a backlash from the Lingayats. The Congress put in line Other Backward Class (OBC) leaders, S Bangarappa and Veerappa Moily next in line to become chief ministers. The wait for the Vokkaligas continued until 1994.

The Karnataka battle has been predominantly decided by either the Vokkaliga or Lingayat community. The Vokkaligas decide the outcome of the elections in 80 constituencies.

In the 2018 elections, 42 Vokkaligas won the elections, of which 23 were from the JD(S). Deve Gowda's son, H D Kumaraswamy, a Vokkaliga went on to become chief minster for 14 months with the backing of the Congress.

The elections this year around are interesting. The BJP which normally focuses on the Lingayat votes is going all out to woo the Vokkaligas. The Congress on the other hand are trying to break the JD(S)' Vokkaliga vote bank with D K Shivakumar from the same community leading the pack. The JD(S) remains heavily focused on this community.

Will the Vokkaligas have another chief minister from their community. Like in cricket, the results cannot be guessed until the last vote is counted.