JAMAKHANDI/BELAGAVI: A robust Congress campaign and the way the party capitalised on the BJP’s chinks in the armour helped a young and emerging political leader Anand Nyamagouda register a maiden landslide victory against veteran Srikanth Kulkarni of the BJP in the Jamkhandi by-poll.
A concerted effort by the Congress, headed by former chief minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwar, throughout the high-voltage campaign paid off as a large section of voters rallied behind Nyamagouda who scripted an incredible win by a margin of about 39,480 votes against his nearest rival Kulkarni.
Even though BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa spearheaded his party’s campaign, it became evident from the result that even a large section of Lingayat voters in Jamkhandi also rejected the saffron party.
According to official figures, Nyamagouda secured 97,018 votes. In the only by-poll to the assembly held prior to this in 1970 for Jamkhandi seat, Shrishailappa Athani from the Congress had won by a slender margin of 72 votes.
Kulkarni, who lost with merely 2,795 votes against Siddu Nyamagouda in the last election, secured merely 57,537 votes this time. Many in the party attributed his pathetic show this time to his failure to take the rebels into confidence, lack of unity among local party leaders, including the Nirani brothers, over-dependence on the Hindutva factor, failure of top leaders to hold bigger rallies, internal rivalry between party leaders, under-estimation of Congress election strategies and half-hearted support by the Nirani brothers. After his defeat, Kulkarni accused the Congress of handing out `30 crore to win the seat.