The caste- and cash-driven elections in Karnataka will now be fought on the strength of the planets, too!
With the Election Commission announcing the bypolls to three assembly seats—Sandur, Shiggaon and Channapatna, on November 13—the Karnataka Congress has resorted to consulting astrologers to finalise its candidates.
The latest trend is to pick candidates with the most promising horoscope even as elections are getting tougher, with multiple parties in fray.
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KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar has, reportedly, been consulting astrologers to go through the horoscope of the potential candidates and also their opponents before giving the tickets. While political considerations like caste, popularity, pedigree and proximity to senior leadership besides money power, have always given an edge to the ticket aspirants, this time, the candidate has to have a “favourable” planetary alignments to bag the jackpot.
The Congress chief has referred the horoscopes of the potential candidates from the party, including that of his younger brother D.K. Suresh, who is likely to contest from Channapatna, to astrologers. Interestingly, the horoscopes of the potential opponents are also under scrutiny.
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Though the BJP and the JD(S) are yet to announce the NDA candidates, speculations over JD(S) leader and Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy 's son Nikhil Kumaraswamy and BJP's defeated candidate C.P. Yogishwar entering the fray has made the Congress leader check the horoscopes of both Nikhil and Yogishwar (who is likely to be rebel candidate).
The strategy was adopted in the last assembly polls, which saw the Congress win with a thumping majority with 136 seats. This time, Shivakumar is keen on his younger brother winning the Channapatna seat to avenge the latter’s humiliating defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, to NDA candidate Dr C.N. Manjunath, a renowned cardiologist and son-in-law of JD(S) patriarch and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda.
Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga leader, seems to have taken a leaf out of Vokkaliga icon Deve Gowda’s playbook, as the family is known to rely heavily on astrology in both their political career and personal life.
Most politicians in the state, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, follow the almanac. Budgets are tabled, schemes are launched and political rallies held as per the auspicious time. The state has witnessed cabinet meetings being put off during “Ashadha masa” in 2006, when the then chief minister Kumaraswamy abstained from holding cabinet meetings in the inauspicious month.
Shivakumar, a staunch devotee of “Ajjayya” – the pontiff of Sri Kadasiddeshwara Mutt in Nonavinakere (Tiptur) in Tumakuru – subscribes to astrology and believes in temple visits, religious rituals much like the JD(S) patriarch.
Ironically, it was an astrological prediction that had led Shivakumar, who was deputy to then chief minister S.M. Krishna, to field popular TV anchor and journalist Tejaswini Gowda against Deve Gowda in Kanakapura Parliament constituency (prior to delimitation) in 2004. Tejaswini emerged a giant killer by pushing Devegowda to the third position, and the prediction that only a wman could defeat the JD(S) patriarch had come true.