Karnataka polls: Banjara community unhappy with Congress, says party leader K Shivamurthy

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 18 : As the State Assembly elections in Karnataka come near, political parties in the southern State are leaving no stone unturned for a favourable electoral outcome.

A political party cannot reach the helm in Karnataka without the support of a numerically and politically strong community, the Banjara community.

The Banjara community has influence in more than 30 Assembly seats out of 224 in Karnataka. Aware of this, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress have fielded 13 and 3 candidates, respectively, from the influential community.

Asked about whom this time the community will support, K Shivamurthy, a Congress leader from the Banjara community, said that the people of the Banjara community are talking among themselves that the party which has given them more tickets will also vote for that party.

K Shivamurthy has been a four-time MLA of the Congress party, and a minister in the Congress government in Karnataka, but is also miffed for not getting the ticket this time.

Shivamurthy said that nowadays there is no one in the Karnataka Congress to take care of the Banjara community.

"The sisters of the Banjara community contributed a lot to make Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra a success, yet when it came to giving tickets, the party gave only three tickets to the Banjara community," he said.

K Shivamurthy, who holds the post of general secretary of the Karnataka Congress, said that there is a lot of resentment among the voters of the Banjara community against the Congress and the party may suffer a big loss in the elections.

Karnataka will go to Assembly elections on May 10 in a single phase and the counting of votes will be done on May 13.