With elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council from West Graduates’ Constituency scheduled for June 20 this year, lobbying for the Congress ticket has intensified. The election is sure to throw up a new face as all parties are fielding freshers.
The BJP has named former member of Karnatak University and president of Karnataka Vijnana Parishat S V Sankanur as its candidate while MLC and former education minister Basavaraj Horatti is all set to field his son Vasant Horatti from Janata Dal (S). The selection of Sankanur and Vasant has caused heartburn in both the BJP and Janata Dal (S) camps.
This election will be special, as for the first time from 1984 (when BJP’s Y S Patil vacated the seat) the Congress has to look for a fresh candidate.
RDPR minister H K Patil had been representing the constituency comprising of the undivided Dharwad district and Uttara Kannada, and he had won four times. He had lost to BJP’s Mohan Limbikai in 2008. Limbikai had won by a margin of 4,410 votes. Of the 50,768 votes polled, Patil secured 21,327 first preferential votes and Limbikai had got 25,737 votes.
While Limbikai vacated the seat in 2012 to join the KJP and contest the assembly poll from Hubli-Dharwad West constituency and lost, H K Patil contested from Gadag and won, and went on to become a minister. Limbikai, subsequently, returned to the BJP and staked his claim to the BJP ticket. But, the BJP decided in favour of Sankanur who contested as a rebel BJP candidate in the election to the Council from the West Teachers’ constituency against Basavaraj Horatti in 2010.
There were several other aspirants for the BJP ticket and they are unhappy over Sankanur being preferred. Their contention is that the party should not have considered a candidate who had rebelled against it in the past. In 2010, the BJP leaders had earlier indicated that S V Sankanur would be its candidate for the west teachers’ constituency and he had started campaigning, claiming to be a BJP nominee.
However, bowing to pressure from a section in the party, BJP announced Kuberappa as its nominee. This led to Sankanur cutting into Kuberappa’s votes as he bagged votes that would otherwise have gone to the BJP.
Several followers of MLC Basavaraj Horatti who have supported him in all the six elections he contested and ensured his victory are now hoping that their leader would pick one of them for the graduates’ constituency.
They are now disappointed as Horatti decided to field his son Vasant. President of Dharwad district Kannada Sahitya Parishat Lingaraj Angadi and teachers’ leader Sham Mallanagoudar who were preparing to contest, depending on Horatti’s support are unhappy over his decision and have resolved to contest as independents.
Meanwhile, several aspirants have been knocking the doors of party leaders and their respective godfathers for a Congress ticket. The party has not yet indicated who would be its candidate and this has made the aspirants reluctant to get the fresh voters registered.
President of Dharwad Bar Association Venkaraddi Kamaraddi, former HDUDA chairman Raja Desai, T Ishwar, youth Congress leader Sadanand Danganavar among others are strong contenders for the ticket. Former MLA D R Patil who could not get the Congress ticket to contest Lok Sabha election from Haveri is also said to be seeking a ticket now.
There are people from Haveri and Uttara Kannada district demanding tickets from the parties, but the arithmetic is not in their favour. Since over 50 per cent of the voters are in Dharwad district, it has become a compulsion for the parties to field a candidate who belongs to the district.
The West Graduates’ Constituency comprises Dharwad, Haveri, Gadag and Uttara Kannada districts.
