Congress beats BJP and KJP in Council bypolls

August 27, 2013

Bangalore, Aug 26: The Congress continued its winning spree by walking away with two of the three seats to the Legislative Council from the Local Authorities Constituencies. One seat went to an independent. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) had to bite the dust.

The by-elections were held on August 22. Results were declared on Monday. The Mysore and Dharwad seats went to the Congress, and the Chitradurga seat to an independent. Voters were elected members of the local bodies, MLAs and MPs of the undivided districts of Dharwad, Mysore and Chitradurga.

The results trickled in when Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was sharing his achievements and happiness for completing 100 days in office, with the media in Vidhana Soudha. He said some initiatives of his government had attracted the people and thus the party had been able to win the elections.

The byelections were necessitated as the sitting BJP MLCs of Dharwad and Mysore had resigned to join the KJP of B?S?Yeddyurappa. In Chitradurga, the BJP?MLC gave up his council seat after he won the Assembly election. The experiment of the BJP and KJP unitedly fighting the polls to take on the Congress and the JD-S keeping off the poll battle did not create any problem for Congress candidates.

Congress' nominee Nagaraj Chabbi won the Dharwad seat by trouncing BJP leader Jagadish Shettar's brother Pradeep Shettar. In Mysore, the home turf of Siddaramaiah, Congress candidate R?Dharmasena won the seat by defeating his nearest rival U?S?Shekar of the KJP.

Many BJP leaders, including D V Sadananda Gowda, had extensively campaigned for Shekar. The Chitradurga council seat has gone to the 33-year-old G?Raghu Achar, a businessman, who contested as an independent.

He was pitted against M?A?Sethuram of the Congress and K?S?Naveen of the BJP. The Congress was pushed to the third position, with the BJP occupying the second slot. Achar, a native of Mysore, had made a vain attempt to get the Congress ticket.

Pradeep Shettar lost to Nagaraj Chabbi in Dharwad, a stronghold of the BJP. Chabbi, in this preferential system of voting, could not get the mandatory 50 per cent plus one vote of the total votes polled, in the first round.

Of the total 7,316 voters, 7,293 had exercised their franchise, and 7,114 votes were found valid.

Chabbi had secured 3,492 votes, while Shettar, 3,447 votes. Basavaraj Hadi, an independent candidate, could get only 175 votes.

Counting of the second preference votes had to be taken up and eventually Chabbi clinched the seat by a margin of 43 votes.

In Mysore, Dharmasena won the seat by getting 3,779 first preferential votes. In Chitradurga, of the total 5,071 votes polled, 361 were invalid. In the first round, Raghu Achar had secured 1,753 votes. In the second preferential vote counting, he secured another 223 votes and thus won the seat.

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JD(S) leader G T Devegowda backs CM Siddaramaiah in MUDA row, taunts HDK

News Network

October 4,2024

Mysuru: Chairman of JD(S) core committee and Chamundeshwari constituency MLA G T Devegowda on Thursday expressed his solidarity with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah saying the latter need not resign, while lambasting leaders of his own party and alliance partner BJP, including Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

In his speech during Mysuru Dasara inauguration he said that if persons against whom FIR is registered have to resign, many leaders from all the three parties, including Opposition Leader R Ashoka, will have to resign.

“All are sitting in glass houses... Since I know Siddaramaiah well, I am talking about him. At a time when mines and real estate are ruling politics, Siddaramaiah has survived in politics. He has never done any favour,” Devegowda said.

He added, “Allegations against Siddaramaiah are unexpected and accidental. If the Governor and Chief Justice order an investigation, it does not mean that he should resign."

He continued, asking, "Have they told Siddaramaiah to resign or have they asked to imprison him? When a person becomes a Central minister, he or she should realise their dignity and responsibility. Instead of recognising the good work done by Siddaramaiah, they ask him to resign. Will Kumarswamy (facing an FIR) resign? Should Siddaramaiah, who has become CM with a support of 135 MLAs, resign?"

"Opposition leaders are not remembering the good work of earlier CMs Kengal Hanumanthaiah, Veerendra Patil, Ramakrishna Hegde, H D Deve Gowda or S M Krishna. Karnataka is a model state. It is a bad trend to topple an elected government which is doing good work,” he further said.

Devegowda added, “Siddaramaiah is Goddess Chamundeshwari’s ‘Varaputra’ and hence has her blessings during tough times. He won the election in Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency, when the BJP-JD(S) government was in power in 2006. With the blessings of the Goddess, he has held varied positions right from becoming an MLA for the first time in 1983. He presented 15 budgets and has become CM for a second time. He took H C Mahadevappa, a Dalit leader to the state level. Siddaramaiah has the support of Deputy CM D K Shivakumar as ‘Jodeththu’. Blessings of the beneficiaries of guarantee schemes are with him (Siddaramaiah).”

Siddaramaiah said, “Devegowda was a MUDA member. He knows the truth. Hence, he is saying this. His words have filled strength in me. ‘Satyameva Jayate’, Truth will always triumph.”

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