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hat was meant to be a lighthearted comment about inequality in the countrybturned into a political blunder that could undermine presidential contender Prabowo Subianto’s attempt to win votes in Central Java, the stronghold of his rival, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, an analyst says.

The Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno ticket has been focusing its campaign in Central Java, where Jokowi won more than 60 percent of the vote in the 2014 election.

However, the campaign got off to a bad start after Prabowo joked that people with tampang Boyolali (Boyolali look) would get kicked out from fancy hotels in Jakarta, in a jest aimed to describe the worsening inequality in the country.

While Boyolali is a small regency in Central Java, Jokowi’s supporters have capitalized on the blunder to discredit Prabowo, who has made inequality a central issue in his campaign, in the eyes of voters.

Only days after Prabowo’s faux pass, Jokowi called on election participants to remain civilized while campaigning, saying that many people still believed he was a communist when he was a Muslim and his parents came from Boyolali.

Boyolali Regent Seno Samodro, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician, event reported Prabowo to the police and Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) for alleged hate speech and campaign violation.

Prabowo has since apologized for his remark, and his campaign remains upbeat that he could eventually beat Jokowi in Central Java and East Java, where the former general has been intensifying his campaign.

According to the ticket’s official schedule, Prabowo and Sandiaga have mostly visited Islamic boarding schools and traditional markets across the two provinces since the campaign period kicked off in September. That same month, Prabowo stopped at Attauhidiyah Islamic boarding school in Tegal, Central Java, after traveling to Pekalongan. In October, he visited Darul Quran Salafiah in Klaten, Central Java, after visiting an Islamic boarding school owned by Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) figure Maimoen Zubair in Rembang, East Java.

On the first day of campaigning, Sandiaga went to Temanggung, Central Java, to deliver a speech to young people at an event held by the National Mandate Party (PAN). He also visited several Central Java traditional markets last month.

“Jokowi’s electability is currently higher than that of Prabowo [in Central Java], according to political surveys. Nevertheless, the number is stagnant [...] We will take over Jokowi,” said Gerindra executive Andre Rosiade.

Gerindra believes that the “Boyolali look” controversy was played out by supporters of the incumbent to undermine Prabowo’s campaign.

“Since Jokowi’s electability remains stagnant, the rival camp may think that it should attack Prabowo,” Andre said. PDI-P Secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto has denied Gerindra’s accusation.

“To be honest, we have never politicized the issue. But we want all leaders to give a good political education to the people. It is not appropriate for a leader who can afford to stay in hotels to say that certain people can’t afford to enter the hotels,” Hasto said.

Central Java is known as a stronghold of the ruling PDI-P, which leads the coalition endorsing Jokowi and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin.

A recent survey by Alvara Research Center shows that the pair has 59.1 percent of votes in Java, mostly from the two provinces, while Prabowo and Sandiaga has only 29.2 percent.

In the 2014 presidential election, Jokowi won 66.65 percent of votes in Central Java, beating Prabowo’s 33.35 percent.

Data from the General Elections Commission (KPU) says that so far, there are more than 27 million eligible voters for the 2019 election from Central Java, with Boyolali Regency contributing 51,829.

Political observer Novri Susan from Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, said Prabowo’s remark could harm his electability among millennial voters, particularly those who were Boyolali residents.

“He can lose votes in the region, particularly millennials voters, because most of them have no ideological ties [to certain parties],” Novri said.