JD(S) workers from in Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency voted for BJP candidate Pratap Simha when casting their ballot for Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking to reporters JD(S) district in-charge minister G T Devegowda admitted that his party workers supported BJP and its candidate Pratap Sinha. The party workers were reluctant to support C H Vijayshankar, who was the Congress and JDs coalition candidate.

BJP candidate Pratap Sinha belongs to the caste Vokkaligga and Congress’s Vijyashankar to Kuruba community, it should be noted that the 2018 assembly elections were fought on the same caste lines where former CM Siddaramaiah belonging to Kuruba lost to G T Devegowda from Vokkaligga community.

Vokkaliga are Gowda community who are landlords and village headmen. They are known to be one of the dominant and powerful castes in Southern India and are primarily a farming community and politically affluent.

Kuruba caste is native to state of Karnataka and the third largest caste group. The community's traditional occupation has been shepherding and belongs to chandravamsa ksatriyas.

Though almost all political parties resort to caste and religion politics to appease voters, this act of voting for the opposition purely based on caste comes as shocker.