Hosadurga assembly constituency falls in Chitradurga district of Central Karnataka. In the 2018 assembly polls the BJP candidate Gulihatti D Shekhar managed to grab victory from this constituency by securing over 56% votes. This was however the debut victory for the BJP since the inception of this constituency. Surprisingly, in the preceding elections of 2013 BJP had secured fourth position with less than 2% votes. The influence and popularity of Gulihatti D Shekhar can be attributed towards the success of BJP in this AC in the 2018 Assembly Elections.

Gulihatti D Shekhar was denied the ticket by BJP this time around following which he quit the party and is set to contest as an independent candidate. The ticket was however allotted to the B. S. Yediyurappa's close aide S. Lingamurthy. B.G. Govindappa is the Congress candidate who had represented Hosadurga assembly thrice (1999, 2004 & 2013).

Lingayat and the SCs are the dominant castes in this constituency. SCs comprises of Bovi , Lambani, Adi Karnataka, Madiga and Kormi communities. The Bovi community is traditionally inclined to BJP with a very little percentage of votes having an inclination towards Congress. The Lambani community constitutes a considerable vote bank and seems to be split between Congress and Gullihati D Sekhar. The community believes that Shekhar will favor them given the fact that he himself is an SC. Adi Karnataka community is traditionally inclined to the Congress and the vote bank is intact with the party. SC left community and Madigas which is less in population is inclined towards BJP but it seems that the votes from this community can be casted in favor of Shekhar as well. The STs and Muslims who comprise a few thousand voters is expected to get split among Congress, Shekhar and T. Manjunath, an independent candidate. T. Manjunath is from Devanga caste, which is a sub caste of Lingayats. The Golla community which comprises of a few thousand voters in the constituency will apparently vote for the Congress.

There is resentment among people over Shekhar’s poor performance. . Apart from that, Shekhar has a negative image for indulging in favoritism towards the SCs. The Lingayat community wants to see a new face from the constituency and hence they are expected to caste their vote either vote for BJP or T. Manjunath.

There are complaints of water shortage from Hosadurga taluk owing to the depletion of groundwater table creating troubles in terms of irrigation as well as drinking water. The problem becomes more prominent in summers. There are housing related issues as well where only a small section of beneficiaries were covered under the PM Gramin Aawas Yojana.

It appears that the Congress has an edge this time but one cannot deny the fact that Shekhar will give a tough fight as an independent candidate. He had managed to win this seat as an independent candidate in the past (2008) as well. Stay tuned to ETG Research opinion poll on times now for our latest predictions for this seat and Karnataka Assembly Elections.