INDIA SUMMARIZED

Kodagu district saw a consolidation of votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently concluded Karnataka elections, thanks to former chief minister Siddaramaiah’s decision to honour the memory of the controversial eighteenth-century king, Tipu Sultan. The celebration of Tipu Jayanti had sparked heavy violence in the district in November 2015 and angered the Kodavas in the district. The district had three assembly constituencies – Madikeri, Virajpet, and Somwarpet – until 2008, after which the delimitation of constituencies was carried out. Somwarpet then became a part of Madikeri constituency, and the district came to be represented by two constituencies alone. Kodavas and Gowdas are the two major communities in Kodagu, and both of them backed the BJP in the last three assembly elections as well as in the Lok Sabha election. The scales tilted in the BJP’s favour after Kodavas raised the demand for a separate state, or a hill council, or at least an autonomous region. ...