The Congress in Karnataka has faced several allegations of nepotism while handing out tickets for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. However, the party high command has stressed that winnability was a key factor during selection of candidates. One such candidate is Mrinal Hebbalkar, who has been nominated from the Belgaum Lok Sabha seat. He is the son of Karnataka Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar.
Mrinal is fighting a closely watched contest against former chief minister and senior BJP leader Jagadish Shettar, making it a fight between a young face and experience on the seat. Mrinal, facing his first major electoral debut, is pitted against Shettar’s political expertise and maneuvering.
Replying to a question on how he plans to pit himself against a senior leader like Shettar, Mrinal said that elections are not new to him and his body of work as a Youth Congress leader and now as Karnataka State Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress has given him enough exposure and expertise.
“Elections are not new to me. This is the sixth election that I will be closely participating in within my family, though it is my first major election. I am not a new person to Belgaum or the people here. I know every nook and corner and they identify me and show their support and affection towards me. They see me as their representative, and they understand that with my work as a Youth Congress worker for 7-8 years, they can trust me to deliver what they need,” the Congress leader said, exuding confidence.
Mrinal also emphasized that Shettar, who may have been an MLA from the nearby Hubballi seat, “may not know or understand Belgaum as a seat”. “This is a bilingual constituency where people speak Kannada as well as Marathi. We have to find a balance with people across linguistic lines as well, which Shettar may not be able to do. I, as a local Belgaumite, can make that connection,” he said.
Having dreamt of becoming an aeronautical engineer, Mrinal had to shift to civil engineering as his interest in politics began to grow. Mrinal said that politics came naturally to him. His passion to observe political debates and direct involvement in his mother’s social and political work prompted him to make a sharp change in his career.
“Since 2012, when my mother forayed into active politics, I also got a break. I began to actively appreciate social and political activities that were being done by the Congress party and my mother in the Belgaum rural seat. Along with her wins and losses, I have also learned a lot and have come a long way today as I contest for an MP seat,” he said.
Mrinal said that his mother Laxmi Hebbalkar’s electoral defeat in the 2013 elections, where unparliamentary language was used by Hebbalkar’s arch-rival and now BJP MLA Ramesh Jarakiholi to insult her, marked his decision to foray into active politics. Laxmi had unsuccessfully contested from the Belgaum Lok Sabha seat in 2014 as well.
He pointed out that after winning elections, the BJP MP made several promises like bringing in infrastructure projects for the region, ring roads to ease traffic congestion, MNCs to create more jobs for unemployed youth, and setting up of SEZs. “Where are all those promises? Just on paper. It took them 25 years to build a flyover at a junction in the heart of Belgaum, which would get blocked as there are three railway gates. That’s the speed of their progress,” Mrinal told News18.
Belgaum is considered Karnataka’s second capital, and yet it needs so much more development to match up to being even considered a Tier 1 city, said Mrinal, adding that he has charted out a blueprint for the development of the Lok Sabha constituency if elected.
“Shettar and the Angadi family are one. They make the same promises for votes and then do zilch,” said the young Congress leader, referring to how both families are connected through marriage. Former Union Minister Suresh Angadi’s daughter Shraddha is married to Shettar’s son. Angadi, who represented the Belgaum LS seat, passed away in 2020 while in office.
Jagadish Shettar, a prominent Lingayat leader hailing from the North Karnataka region has been campaigning aggressively as this is his first national level election. He had been elected as MLA from Hubballi-Central Dharwad constituency for six consecutive terms. However, in the 2023 assembly elections, the BJP chose not to field him as a candidate. Disgruntled by this decision, Shettar switched allegiance to the Congress, who offered him a ticket for the seat he had won for three decades. Despite his long-standing association with the constituency, Shettar suffered a defeat, losing by a margin of over 30,000 votes to the BJP’s Mahesh Tenginakai.
Shettar, however, decided to switch back to the BJP just before the Lok Sabha polls and has been given the ticket to contest from Belgaum.
“Shettar happens to be a former Chief Minister of Karnataka, but what has he given to Belgaum? He has taken away all that Belgaum deserved, be it an IIT, high court, or industrial corridor, and set it up in his seat in Hubballi,” alleged Mrinal.
After his ‘ghar vapsi‘ to the BJP, Shettar has been campaigning using the Modi mantra and said that people want to see the PM get a third term and so will vote in his favour. But Mrinal feels that this time around people are looking for change and not for ‘opportunists.’
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