The murder of Praveen Nettaru, a Yuva Morcha leader, and the massive protests by Right Wing groups that followed has put the ruling BJP in a quandary. Activists of other Hindu organisations publicly and vehemently expressed their fury against the Karnataka BJP leaders as well as the state government. The protest also had support from workers of BJP. Coastal Karnataka has for long been a strong BJP bastion, but will the anger of the core vote base hurt them in the upcoming Assembly elections?
In the 2018 Assembly polls, BJP won 18 of the 21 seats from the three coastal districts, also called the Karavali. The Congress won just three. Now, since the outpouring of anger against the BJP leaders, questions of whether the tide will turn against the BJP has risen. But leaders of the Hindu organisations who hit the streets protesting say their stance will not change electorally.
“When the Congress was in power, several Hindutva activists were killed. Now, even with the BJP in power the same is happening. But we are only expressing our anger and it is not personal. We hope they will try to understand why these things are happening repeatedly and rectify them in the coming days,” said Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Sharan Pumpwell. He says they however have no intention of defeating BJP in the upcoming polls. “The Sangh Parivar is one family and we have just expressed that we are hurt. But we will get back together with the BJP. Our demand was that there should be a regional NIA office in Mangaluru and those who killed Praveen should get maximum punishment,” he added.
Similar sentiments were echoed by other Hindu organisations too. Praveen from Hindu Jagarana Vedike said “When it comes to elections, we have no choice. We have to work for the BJP. Our anger is not against BJP but its current leadership in Karnataka. But in the upcoming Assembly elections, those who believe in Hindutva have no other option but BJP. We have a feeling of helplessness now and this could even help BJP electorally”.
A Sri Rama Sene leader told TNM that despite Pramod Muthalik’s statements against the administration, when it comes to elections, they will not work against the BJP. “We all felt let down by the BJP. We had high hopes when they came to power. They even stopped our leader(Muthalik) from entering Dakshina Kannada district and meeting Praveen’s family. We will not forget this. But we will not go with anti-Hindu parties either,” he said.
“We can be upset with a political party like BJP but not work against the cause(Hindutva),” he added.
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