Mysuru, Apr 13: In a major blow to Bharatiya Janata Party and those who rebelled against Congress leadership recently, Karnataka’s ruling Congress won the Nanjangud and Gundlupet assembly bypolls by a huge margin, counting for which was held on Thursday.
The bypolls had turned into a proxy battle between Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa to reassert their leadership. The bypoll in Nanjangud was crucial for former minister and Dalit leader V Srinivasa Prasad, who resigned from the Congress and his assembly membership to contest on a BJP ticket after he was dropped from the cabinet in June 2016. The result is a major setback to him.
In Nanjandgud, Congress candidate Kalale Krishnamurthy defeated BJP's Prasad by a margin of 21,334 votes. While in Gundlupet, Congress candidate Geetha Mahadev Prasad, wife of minister H S Mahadev Prasad, whose death necessitated the bypoll trounced C S Niranjan Kumar (BJP) by a margin of 10,887 votes. Both Congress candidates managed to maintain the leads from the initial rounds itself.
The BJP was banking on a victory in these bypolls for many reasons. Firstly, it had never won in these constituencies where the Lingayats and the Dalits are in huge numer. The party leadership was looking at pulling off a Uttar Pradesh like voting trend where the Dalits had favoured the BJP and it won 69 of the total 85 reserved constituencies.
For Krishnamurthy, it was sheer luck, who left the JD(S) at the last minute to join the Congress and was given the ticket to contest. He had lost to Prasad in earlier elections as a JD(S) candidate.
In Gundlupet, the Congress banking on a sympathy wave for the late minister fielded his wife Geetha, a college professor and writer. The calculation worked. For BJP's Kumar, this is his third unsuccessful attempt to win from Gundlupet.
The victory in both the constituencies has raised hopes among the rank and file in the Congress of the high command addressing their demands of an overhaul of the party, which has to face elections in 2018. Clarity over whether incumbent G Parameshwara, who is also the home minister, will be continued as KPCC president or a new face brought in will emerge.
The front runners are energy minister D K Shiva Kumar (Vokkaliga), former minister S R Patil, MLA C S Nada Gouda (both Lingayats) with MP K H Muniyappa (Dalit) having thrown in his hat into the ring.
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