Congress grapples with candidate names for Chikkodi in Belgaum

Chikkodi was the fiefdom of Congress from 1962 to 1991 with V L Patil getting elected once and former Union minister B Shankaranand retaining the seat seven times in a row. He had won in 1967, 1971,1977, 1980,1984,1989 and 1991. The seat was reserved for SC.

The opposition parties which had found it difficult to defeat Shankaranand, decided to field a lesser known woman candidate Ratnamala Dhareshwar Savanur from Janata Dal and the strategy worked. Ratnamala defeated Shankaranand by a margin of 112,759 votes. Shankaranand’s defeat ended the Congress’ hold on the constituency. In subsequent election in 1998, Shankaranand again tried his luck but lost to Ramesh Jigajinagi who had contested on the Lok Shakti ticket, by a margin of 131,238 votes. After that Shankaranand’s son Pradeepkumar Kanagali was fielded, but he lost to Jigajinagi, now in the fray as a JD(U) candidate, by a margin of 84,590 votes. In 2004 the Congress fielded S B Ghatage against Jigajinagi (who was BJP candidate then) only to lose by 43,492 votes.

Jigajinagi left the constituency when the reservation was withdrawn following delimitation in 2009 and switched to Bijapur. While the BJP fielded sugar baron Ramesh Katti, Congress fielded Prakash Hukkeri. Ramesh won by 55,287 votes.

Presently, Chikkodi Lok Sabha constituency comprises the following eight Legislative Assembly segments: Nippani, Chikkodi-Sadalaga, Athani, Kagwad, Kudachi, Raibag, Hukkeri and Yamakanamaradi. While Congress has two MLAs (Prakash Hukkeri, Satish Jarkiholi-both are ministers now), BJP has five (Shashikala Jolle, Laxman Savadi, Bharamgouda Kage, Duryodhan Aihole, Umesh Katti) and BSR Congress one (former police sub-inspector P Rajeev).

Another sugar baron and former minister A B Patil who joined the Congress a couple of years ago, is a serious contender for the Congress ticket. Political observers feel that veteran Prakash Hukkeri is the only candidate who can take on Ramesh Katti. However, Hukkeri who is MLA for the consecutive fifth term is not said to be not keen on contesting and is batting for his son Ganesh who is a zilla panchayat member.

Meanwhile, political novice Amit Kore, son of BJP Rajya Sabha member Prabhakar Kore is also eying the Congress ticket. He joined the Congress much to the surprise of political leaders in the district recently and wants to enter the poll fray. Sources said, the Kore family wants to retain its base of Chikkodi and hence has encouraged Amit to join the Congress.

It is to be seen if the Congress will try a youngster (as was done by the Janata Parivar in 1996) to break the winning spree of BJP or depends again on veterans. The Congress workers want the party to decide the candidate at the earliest so that they can start working to face the election. “The BJP candidate is fixed and delay in deciding Congress candidate only helps BJP” said Ramanagouda of Athani.