JDS-INC candidates register new records in electoral history

The recent bye elections held on 3 November to three Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies which were projected to be an acid test to both,Janata Dal Secular(JDS) and the Indian National Congress(INC),ruling partners of the state government have proved otherwise in the results announced today.

Both,Mandya Lok Sabha constituency in Mandya district and Ramanagar Assembly constituency in adjoining Ramanagar district in the old Mysuru region have gone to the Janata Dal Secular candidates as expected.But Ballari Lok Sabha constituency in Hyderabad Karnataka region and Jamakhandi Assembly of Bagalkote district in Mumbai Karnataka area have gone the Congress way thus giving the main opposition party,Bharatiya Janata Party a big jolt.

The face saving factor to the BJP remained in BY Raghavendra of the party in retaining Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency in the Malnad region where he trounced Madhu Bangarappa,the combined candidate of JDS and the Congress.

In Ballari Lok Sabha constituency VS Ugrappa of the Indian National Congress humiliated J Shanta of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a record margin unheard of so far.He bagged 4,44,341 votes and defeated J Shanta of the BJP who polled 2,70,041 votes.The victory margin is 1,74,300 votes.

In fact Ballari had been a Congress bastion ever since 1951 and till 2000 when Gali Janardhana Reddy,infamous for mining scams entered the political arena through the Bharatiya Janata Party.G Karunakar Reddy,the eldest of Reddy brothers won the constituency for the first time to the saffron party during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

During the 2009 Lok Sabha elections J Shanta,sister of B Sriramulu,BJP leader and close confidant of G Janardhana Reddy continued to retain the seat for the party.This winning spree continued even during the 2014 Parliamentary elections when B Sriramulu of the party emerged victorious from the same Ballari constituency.

However he chose to vacate it after being elected to the state Assembly from Molakalmuru constituency in the adjoining Chitradurga district during the May 2018 general elections.He was defeated in Badami constituency by Siddaramaiah,the then Congress party chief minister by a meagre margin of around 1,600 votes.

In this way the Congress seized back Ballari Lok Sabha constituency after a gap of one and a half decade and the noteworthy piquant factor remains in the form of VS Ugrappa,currently Congress MLC who had a dubious distinction of not being elected in direct elections even once so far in his career made it a big win for himself and the party!

Anand Nyamgouda,son of Siddu Nyamagouda,deceased former Congress MLA,thanks to the sympathy factor which worked to his favour triumphed in Jamakhandi constituency.He admitted the sole reason responsible for his victory:All the great achievements and developmental initiatives of my father have come to my rescue in the form of electoral victory.

Anand Nyamagouda of the Congress got 97,013 votes and defeated Shrikant Kulakarni of the BJP by a margin of 39,484 votes.The BJP candidate came behind by bagging 57,529 votes.

LR Shivaramegowda of the Janata Dal Secular emerged victorious in the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency and tasted victory after a series of defeats continuously for 24 years.He trounced Dr Siddaramaiah,former bureaucrat turned BJP candidate by a spectacular margin of 3,24,925 votes.

While LR Shivaramegowda bagged 5,69,302 votes Dr Siddaramaiah remained way behind by managing 2,44,337 votes.Perhaps the number of votes bagged by the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate itself has turned out to be tremendous performance of the party ever before in the Vokkaliga hot seat.

The BJP candidate Prof B Shivalingaiah had managed to get 86,993 votes during the 2014 Parliamentary elections when CS Puttaraju of the JDS just struggled to defeat Ramya,film heroine turned Congress candidate by a margin of 5,518 votes.In that way and as expected its an unexpected turn out of huge number of votes to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Even in Ramanagar Assembly constituency Anitha Kumaraswamy,wife of HD Kumaraswamy,Chief Minister and JDS candidate created a new history in electoral wins undermining her own husband's victory margin last time.She also became the first woman MLA of the constituency.

She defeated L Chandrasekhar,BJP candidate who retired from the fray just two days before to rejoin the Congress by a huge margin of 1,09,137 votes.She polled 1,25,043 votes while the latter still got 15,906 votes in spite of exiting from the poll scene and going back to the Congress.

With the election of Anitha Kumaraswamy,both husband and wife of the same family have now become members of the lower house in the state Assembly.

-Manohar Yadavatti

blog handled by Infinity Techsyst Dharwad,Karnataka,India