BENGALURU: BC Nagesh, who was a member of the Basavaraj Bommai cabinet, is again in the news following BJP's defeat in the Karnataka elections. The defeat of BC Nagesh, the former health minister, has made it clear that the people of Karnataka have unconditionally rejected the BJP's governance strategies that pre-empted communalism. BC Nagesh, who has RSS roots, was one of the main architects of the hijab ban that started in Karnataka and reached the Supreme Court.

The election results proved that the communal disturbance caused by the BJP in Karnataka had strengthened the feeling among the people to recall the Congress. The hijab issue, denial of the reservation to Muslims, communal tensions in Shimoga, Udupi and Mangalore regions, citizenship issues and uniform civil code debate have all contributed to educated Kannada voters' hostility towards the BJP. While the BJP government had raised many other issues ahead of the elections, the hijab ban implemented during its term was a decision that attracted national attention.

BC Nagesh's defeat reveals that BJP's insistence that women students cannot even enter examination halls wearing hijab has done more harm than good to the party. The BJP leader had called for a ban on hijab not only for students but also for teachers. As a result, BC Nagesh, who contested from the Tiptur constituency, tasted defeat. Congress's K Shadakshari defeated Nagesh by 17,652 votes.

Along with BC Nagesh's defeat, the victory of Kaneez Fatima, a Congress MLA who strongly opposed the hijab ban in Karnataka, must also be mentioned. Kaneez, who led the protest by female students against the ban on the hijab, strongly criticized the BJP's attitude. Contesting from Gulbarga North Constituency, Kaneez defeated BJP's Chandrakant Patil by a majority of 12,841 votes.