Section 144 was imposed in Dakshina Kannada’s Bantwal taluka, 25 km from Mangalore, from the very first day of Ramzan (May 26) last year. The prohibitory orders were in place for almost 56 days. Despite the precautionary measures, the taluka in coastal Karnataka witnessed two murders and several instances of rioting. 

The high profile Assembly constituency has been under Congress party’s grip for decades now. But that doesn’t stop the Sangh Parivar and Hindu fringe groups from fomenting trouble. The Muslim fringe groups, too, have successfully formed a strong cadre support and don’t think twice before triggering violence or a communal spat. This also serves as the capital for Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, a local RSS strongman. 

As Karnataka gets set for the May 12 elections, the political pitch in Mangalore has reached its peak. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed Mangalorians in the district’s eight constituencies on May 5. 

While BJP’s political narrative has communal overtones, the Bantwal constituency exhibits a particularly alarming peculiarity. It’s brazenly communal. So much so that BJP workers, campaigning for party candidate U Rajesh Naik, told this correspondent that “this fight” here is “between Lord Ram and Allah”.

Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada and Congress leader Ramanath Rai is a six-time legislator from the constituency and is contesting the polls for the eighth time. In 2013, he comfortably defeated Naik by over 17,500 votes. The closest fight that Rai’s workers remember was put up by BJP’s B Nagaraj Shetty in 2008 – when the victory margin of Rai was reduced to a mere 1,251 votes.

Muslims form the biggest electorate in the constituency, followed by Billavas and Bunts. Rai himself belongs to the Bunts community. Hence, for past several polls, the BJP is fielding a Bunts candidate with the hopes to divide the community’s vote bank. This poll has become even more critical for Rai since he must not only communicate “the development project undertaken in the past five years” but also counter the allegations being made by the BJP.

Congress candidate Rai’s election office on BC Road of Bantwal constituency

“He is an anti-Hindu leader, there is no doubt about it,” Ganesh Rai, 47, a BJP worker sitting inside Naik’s election office told Newslaundry. “This is an open challenge from the Hindus. If he [Rai] doesn’t need our votes, since he has said he’s been winning because of the Muslim vote bank, let him prove it this time.” Ganesh and other party workers added, “ab Hindu ke vote ke bina jeet ke dikhao [let him try winning without the Hindu votes].”

Rai, while addressing a gathering in December, had given credit for his victory in the constituency to Muslim voters. The right-wing organisation has been using the remark to attack him ever since. With election campaigning in full swing, the BJP is reminding every Hindu household of Rai’s remarks in door-to-door campaigns.    

Defending the remark, Rai told Newslaundry: “When my Assembly constituency was rejigged under delimitation, one Ibrahim candidate had fought against me. Despite him being a Muslim, he got only 6,000 to 7,000 votes. The minority community elected me to power. That’s why I had credited them.” The Congress leader added, “I am a secular man. I love my community [Hindu], I am proud of my caste and have no ill for any other religion and caste.” 

He ridiculed the campaign being run against him.

The RSS and Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat are directly overseeing the polls in Bantwal. Rai and Bhat share an old rivalry. Speaking about the RSS strongman, Rai said, “I have clearly said that the election in my constituency is not between the Congress and the BJP. It is a direct fight between Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat and me.”

Prabhakar Bhat’s temple complex in Kalladka locality

Between 2015 and July 2017, 129 cases of communal incidents were registered in the district. Until July 2017 alone, 40 such cases were reported to the police. Several of these incidents took place in Bantwal. These include rioting, murder, attempt to murder and cow vigilantism. The police during our ‘NL Sena Left Vs Right violence in Kerala’ series, had said some of these incidents were politically motivated. Members associated with right-wing fringe groups such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagran Vedike as well as Muslim fringe group, the Popular Front of India (PFI), have been found to be behind such violence.

In May last year, violence started when three Muslim youths—Mohammed Ashir, Mashooq and Jamal—were attacked by Mithun Poojari, Yatheen and Amith right in front of a mosque under the Bantwal police station limits. Following this, the police imposed Section 144 in the area. 

Mithun, a Bajrang Dal supporter, was out on bail in one of the murder cases. 

Ashraf Kalai, a Social Democratic Party of India [SDPI] leader, was murdered on June 21 and the main accused is another Bajrang Dal leader Bharath Kumdel. 

In July, RSS worker Sharath Madiwala was attacked outside his laundry shop in Bantwal’s BC Road locality. According to the police, those arrested were members of the PFI—a Muslim fundamentalist group—and the motive of the murder was political.

The Kalladka locality of the Bantwal constituency also witnessed a riot-like situation last year—when stones were hurled from a mosque at the Rama temple under Prabhakar Bhat’s control.

The question is how are these incidents relevant to the upcoming Assembly polls? The Sangh Parivar’s door-to-door campaign is focused on these issues. 

“The entire Sangh Parivar is campaigning for the BJP. We are raising the issue of Love Jihad, SDPI activities and attacks on Hindus and the murder of Sarath Madiwal,” 39-year-old Charan Kumar told Newslaundry. Kumar has graduated from the RSS to BJP and is now handling Naik’s campaign affairs.

Meanwhile, Madiwal’s family is unaware of the fact that the political parties are using his name to garner votes. In February 2018, BJP chief Amit Shah had met Thaniyappa Madiwala, Sarath’s father, during a party convention. The family had submitted a memorandum for a National Investigative Agency (NIA) probe into the murder case. “We have lost Sarath, we don’t want to speak about him now,” his sister, who runs the laundry shop, said. She requested us to not meet his father since he keeps unwell. She said she had no idea about the BJP using her brother’s name in the campaign.

BJP workers packing the bundles of publicity material to be used on the day of polling at over 240 booths of Bantwal constituency.

Justifying the use of Madiwala’s name to attack SDPI, BJP candidate Naik said, “Rai has been holding the PFI responsible for Madiwala’s death. In the last minute, he has joined hands with them. SDPI has withdrawn its candidate against Rai. Naturally, after this, we had to tell these things to the voters.” 

He further accused that Rai’s focus on “70,000 minority community” has polarised the polls and one shouldn’t accuse the BJP of vitiating the atmosphere. He, however, maintained that he was not comfortable with the “Ram vs Allah” pitch of some of his supporters.

Meanwhile, Rai said that both Hindu and Muslim fringe groups are against him because he is “exclusively available for all voters irrespective of their religious identity”. He rubbished the allegation of cracking a deal with the SDPI leadership. The SDPI “barely managed to get 6,000-7,000 votes and are politically irrelevant,” he told Newslaundry.

A former SDPI worker was all praise for Rai. Ibrahim Nawaz, 27, who has now joined the Congress, said, “Rai during his tenure, he has brought development projects worth Rs 1,000 crore. To speak to Rai, we don’t need an agent. He is accessible to all his voters.” 

But Nawaz refused to discuss his history with the SDPI-PFI.

It’s not just political parties and netas who subscribe to the communal narrative of the polls. Abdul Samad, 39, argued that “if BJP wins, communal clashes will increase”. A businessman and supporter of the Congress party, Samad said, “Muslims here [Bantwal constituency] are strong. If Hindu fringe groups attack us, we don’t stay calm. We hit them back. I don’t have problems with good Hindus, see we are Rai supporters.”

Meanwhile, for Bhujang Salain, a barber, and Arun D’souza, who runs a stone crushing unit, what matters is the work done by the candidate and his personal qualification. “We have seen Rai’s development projects in the past several years. Things have changed for good. Maybe, we can give a chance to Rajesh Naik of the BJP once and see how he can improve the constituency.”