BELAGAVI: If letters in the alphabet could win elections, then ‘R’ did so in Chikkodi!‘R’amakrishna Hegde started it all inadvertently. R you wondering what this is all about? After an astrologer’s suggestion to the former Janata Dal leader in 1996 that a candidate whose name begins with the letter R will win the Chikkodi Lok Sabha seat, Hegde’s choice - ‘R’atnamala Savanur — won. And since then, Chikkodi has thrown up ‘R’ winners in five consecutive polls till 2009.
Congress’ Prakash Hukkeri broke this chain in 2014. The sitting MP is contesting this time too. His opponent in BJP’s Annasaheb Jolle. The missing ‘R in their names obviously is no longer a factor.The BJP had almost finalised Ramesh Katti (first letter R) as its candidate this time but it decided to have Jolle under pressure from the RSS at the last moment.
The ‘R’ story of Chikkodi has an interesting history and incidentally it has worked in many previous LS polls positively. After defeating seven-time MP from Chikkodi, late B Shankaranand (Congress), in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, `R’atnamala Savanur (Janata Dal) emerged as a giant killer. In the elections that followed in 1998, ‘R’amesh Jigajinagi (Janata Dal) won against Shankaranand . Again, ‘R’amesh Jigajinagi retained his seat in 1999 defeating Shankaranand’s son, Pradeep Kanagali.
The ‘R’ factor continued to work wonders in the constiuency again as `R’amesh Jigajinagi and ‘R’amesh Katti won the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and 2009 respectively. However, the R magic didn’t work in 2014 when Congress candidate Prakash Hukkeri defeated Ramesh Katti. It all started in 1996 after a noted astrologer from the constituency gave some `important tips’ to the Janata Dal leaders who were desperate to defeat seven-time winner Shankaranand. “The astrologer had strongly recommended to Hegde to field a candidate whose name began with `R’ as he believed that only such a person would be able to break the winning spree of Shankaranand in 1996,’’ a senior leader from Athani said.
To everyone’s surprise, the `R’ factor and the astrologer’s predictions came true as `R’atnamala Savanur won by 1.12 lakh votes. The election also marked the virtual end of a 3-decade-long political career of Shankaranand. As a fitting gift to Ratnamala for her historic win, the Janata Dal government headed by H D Deve Gowda at the Centre then inducted her into the Union cabinet. Over to 2019. And to Hukkeri and Jolle.