Fourteen Lok Sabha constituencies in the Northern region of the state of Karnataka are set to go in for polling tomorrow in the second and final round of polls.Polling to the remaining 14 constituencies in Southern region got over on Thursday 18 April.
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| Image source: jagran.com |
The 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state going to the polls are as follows Chikkodi,Belagavi,Bagalkote,Vijayapura,Kalaburagi(Gulburga),Bidar,Raichuru,Ballari,Koppal,Haveri,Dharwad,Uttara Kannada,Davanagere and Shivamogga.By and large the whole of North Karnataka region but for a few exceptions has been considered as a bastion of the saffron party since a few decades and the results of subsequent elections have only added strength to such a notion.
The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) had won 11 seats in the May 2014 Parliamentary elections bagging 49.45 percentage of the total votes polled while the Indian National Congress(INC) had registered a win in three constituencies.During the previous general elections the INC and Janata Dal Secular(JDS) had contested independently but managed to garner 45.4 percentage of votes combined.
However in the 2018 bye elections BJP conceded defeat to the INC at Ballari while managing to retain Shivamogga.These elections were necessitated following the resignations of BJP MPs' B Sriramulu(Ballari) and BS Yeddyurappa(Shivamogga) following their election to the state Assembly.
But for Chikkodi,Kalaburagi(Gulbarga) and Raichuru all other 11 seats were handsomely won by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
On the other hand Ramesh Katti of the BJP had lost to Prakash Hukkeri of the Congress by a slender margin of 3,003 votes in Chikkodi constituency.Likewise Arakera Shivanagouda Nayak of the BJP just missed the victory bus by a negligible margin of 1,499 votes against BV Nayak of the INC.
However Malikarjun Kharge of the INC humbled Revu Naik Belamagi of the BJP in Kalaburagi(Gulbarga) constituency by a big margin of 74,733 votes.But the present elections have given rise to altogether a different picture following the JDS-INC coalition government assuming office in the state.While the Bharatiya Janata Party is contesting all the 14 constituencies the INC has parted away with Shivamogga,Uttara Kannada and Vijayapura to the big brother JDS retaining the remaining 11 constituencies.On the whole and in the entire region Janata Dal Secular(JDS) has not proved itself to be a formidable force for the Lok Sabha polls however thanks to the seat sharing arrangement between the alliance partners, the meagre votes polled by it earlier now pose a danger to the prospects of the BJP!
According to the statistics provided by the Election Commission, the combined vote share of the JDS-INC during the previous Parliamentary elections has all the potential of becoming a stumble to the BJP.May be that would be a right way of looking at things by taking into cognizance the facts and figures.But as you also very well know mere calculation of such numbers will not ensure one to board the victory ship.
The picture on ground is quite contrary to the perceived mathematical calculations in spite of these so called tie up between the JDS and Congress.In Shivamogga DK Shivakumar,Power Minister and in charge of the constituency has been attributed of bringing together the warring factions of JDS and INC to truce.Local political sources also confide:Shivamogga has also become a bone of contention to HD Kumaraswamy, Chief Minister as he wants to avenge the humiliation he's being projected to suffer in Mandya constituency where his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy is the coalition candidate.
But for Bhadravathi having a Congress MLA all other seven Assembly constituencies of Shivamogga district boast of BJP MLAs.The father and sons of the JDS, DK brothers and a host of many a other alliance party leader are sweating a lot to unseat the incumbent BY Raghavendra, son of BS Yeddyuraoppa.Kalaburagi(Gulbarga) is another interesting constituency keenly watched by political onlookers for the presence of Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress party group of Lok Sabha in the electoral fray.In fact Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to start his first leg of political campaigning in the state by addressing a huge gathering in Kalaburagi.
He also received a tremendous response at the venue and made use of the occasion to speak a few sentences in Kannada.However interestingly he never uttered a word nor made any scathing attack against Mallikarjun Kharge indirectly.Baburao Chinchanasoor,Malikayya Guttedar and Dr AB Malakareddy,all former prominent district Congress leaders and proteges of Mallikarjun Kharge have all come together with the sole intention of giving their one time mentor a severe drubbing.
Dr Umesh Jadhav, Chincholi Congress MLA resigned to the party and membership of the state legislature to take Mallikarjun Kharge head on in the polls.Likewise Baburao Chavan,KB Shanappa and many other former BJP leaders and ministers have crossed over to the Congress to come to the rescue of Mallikarjun Kharge.
A retired state government department director sums up the predicament thus:Mallikarjun Kharge is not just a powerful leader of the district.He's a seasoned politician having an absolute understanding of the people's pulse and has contributed many development projects to the region...
...Thanks to his vision,the region has got 500 beds ESI hospital, Medical College, Central University apart from Buddha Vihar which has evolved itself into an international Buddhist shrine.During every election he has faced so far media reports proclaimed that he's bound to be defeated this time...
...However all such projections have failed to materialize so far and the ensuing elections will be no different, he claims.Sanganna Karadi, sitting BJP MP from Koppal is said to be facing rough weather and anti incumbency wave in the constituency and pitched against Rajasekhar Hitnal,brother of K Raghavendra Hitnal, Koppal Congress MLA.
In other constituencies the sitting BJP MPs' seem to be on the advantage due to the region being a known BJP bastion added by the pro Prime Minister Narendra Modi wave pervading all along.
-Manohar Yadavatti
Last article in the series, written without bias.now count down begins for the results. Congratulations for the coverage done .Itnal pune
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