BAGALKOT: Bagalkot has a unique feature.Rains or no rains, flood-like situation is common for three to four months in a year in this commercial town, thanks to the Almatti backwaters which inundate parts of the town. People here are accustomed to the same.
These days, it is a different kind of floods in Bagalkot. People are being flooded with promises and assurances by political parties as the district goes to the polls on April 30.
The Bagalkot Lok Sabha constituency consists of eight Assembly segments. During delimitation, Guledgudd Assembly segment was rechristened as Teradal constituency and Nargund segment which was earlier in Dharwad North was included in Bagalkot Lok Sabha constituency. Ron Assembly which was earlier part of Bagalkot Lok Sabha constituency, has been excluded from it.
In the 1991 LS polls, the Bagalkot constituency attracted the attention of the nation, when former chief minister late Ramakrishna Hegde was defeated by Siddu Nyamagouda, then a political novice and now a Congress MLC.
However, the people in the constituency had blessed another former chief minister late Veerendra Patil of Congress with a win in the 1980 election.
Congress had dominated the constituency till 1996. But the victory of the then Janata Dal candidate Hullappa Meti changed the trend.
Since then non-Congress candidates have been winning this seat.
Another feature is, Bagalkot LS constituency has not elected the candidate of any single party for two consecutive terms since 1980, and it will be curious to see whether sitting MP and BJP candidate P C Gaddigoudar, will prove this notion wrong.
In 2008, the BJP candidates swept all the eight Assembly constituencies in the Bagalkot Lok Sabha constituency.
Bagalkot has thus become a strong BJP fort which is now a boon for its candidate Gaddigoudar.
Though there is a multi-cornered contest, the real fight is between J T Patil of Congress (belonging to Reddy community) and Gaddigoudar of BJP (Ganiga community).
Others who are in the fray include, ZP member Ramesh Gadadannavar (Raitha Sangha), Farook Phakali (BSP), Basavaraj Pujar (RCP), Parashuram Jaalgar (Pyramid Party of India) and eleven independent candidates.
JD(S) has not fielded its candidate here and has announced support to the Congress. JD(S) had, in fact, given ticket to G M Sindhur (belonging to Panchamasaali Lingayat sect). But to everyone’s surprise he withdrew his nomination.
BJP MLAs in all the eight Assembly segments have been campaigning for Gaddigoudar and BJP is leaving no stone unturned to retain Bagalkot seat. On the other hand, the Congress which suffered a humiliating defeat in the last two Assembly elections, has decided to stop the winning trend of BJP, by putting up an united fight and has launched brisk campaigning in rural areas.
Gaddigoudar says he is happy with the development projects undertaken by him using Rs nine crore from MP’s local area development fund. “I wanted to use more of the funds for the income and employment generation projects. But it was not possible as people wanted more facilities in their respective villages and the money went for those projects,” he adds.
The achievements of UPA government and developmental works taken up by him in Bilgi Assembly segment during his tenure as legislator will help him in the LS polls says two-time MLA J T Patil, who is contesting on a Congress ticket.
“One should have a definite goal and sincere efforts must be made to achieve the same. Development is my mantra,” says Patil.
PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS
Though the dream of a railway broadgauge line between Solapur and Gadag has been realised, the demand for new trains to Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi and other places including new railway line between Bagalkot and Kudachi is yet to be accomplished.
The district has a lot of potential for tourism development but important historical places like Badami, Aihole, Pattadakallu and Kudalasangama, urgently need proper roads, approach roads and other civic amenities. Creation of employment opportunities for Upper Krishna Project evacuees and establishment of industries at Navanagar and other parts of the district are the other demands of the people here.