The elections to the Periyapatna Assembly constituency has boosted the morale of the JD(S) in old Mysore region. It has also set the stage for one more electoral battle between the Congress and JD(S) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Though the JD(S) put up a good fight, the Congress has managed to retain the Periyapatna seat with a narrow margin of 2,088 votes to improve its tally to 122 seats in the Assembly. Congress leaders had claimed that they would win with huge margin as people will favour the ruling party and also CM Siddaramaiah’s charisma would work.
The results would have gone against the Congress, if KJP candidate and former MLA H C Basavaraju from a Congress family had not retired from the fray. The Congress, particularly Siddaramaiah, saw to it that all his Cabinet colleagues and local MPs campaigned vigorously for his friend and strong follower K Venkatesh.
He along with KPCC president G Parameshwar managed to bring in Dalit leaders V Srinivasa Prasad, H C Mahadevappa, MP R Druvanarayan and MLA Priyank Kharge to campaign in the constituency that has more than 35,000 Dalit votes. Mahadevappa managed to take all along Dalit organisations other than K Shivaram, the retired bureaucrat and president of Chalavadi organisation, to campaign for the party.
Mysore-Kodagu MP A H Vishwanath said the victory would further strengthen the hands of Siddaramaiah. He maintained that the margin of victory is not important in an election.
However, the sole campaigner of the JD(S), H D Kumaraswamy managed to tour the constituency for five days and managed to put up a brave fight by taking away 59,957 votes. “The result has boosted the morale of the partymen and will help us win the ensuing Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Kumaraswamy,” said JD(S) leader and former ZP president Kadakola Nagraj. JD(S) leaders also claimed that they have managed to make inroads into Dalits vote bank in Periyapatna.
The BJP that ruled the state for five years tasted a humiliating defeat as its candidate H T Satish was pushed to the fourth place, after the BSR Congress candidate Ganesh. The party failed to encash on the death of its candidate Sannamoge Gowda and make a comeback.
JD(S) leaders claimed that the poor performance of the BJP would also make the anti-Congress voters look towards them. The Congress, however, has taken the JD(S) performance seriously and has begun the ground work for the Lok Sabha elections. PWD Minister H C Mahadevappa said that the Congress will win at least 20 of the state’s 28 Lok Sabha seats through good governance.