KALABURAGI: With less than a fortnight to go for the by-election to the Maski Assembly segment, the fight is narrowing down between the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress. JDS has not fielded a candidate here.The two traditional rivals, BJP candidate Pratap Gowda Patil and Congress’ Basanagouda Patil Turvihal, are pitted against each other, though both of them have switched parties since the 2018 Assembly elections.
In 2018, Patil, as a Congress candidate, won against BJP’s Turvihal by a slender margin of 213 votes. However, in the changed scenario, Patil has moved to the saffron party, while Turuvihal has jumped to the Grand Old Party. Patil was among 17 MLAs of the Congress-JDS combine who switched over to the BJP over a year ago, helping BS Yediyurappa form the government.
As the by-elections were necessitated with Patil switching parties, the BJP gave him the ticket as promised. Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa kicked off Patil’s election campaign on March 20 and promised voters that he will visit all the six zilla panchayats in the segment before polling. Helping Patil is also the proven BJP strategist B Y Vijayendra, party state vice-president, who has been campaigning vigorously for the last three days.
On the other side of the poll battle, both Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar and Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah accompanied Turvihal when he filed his nomination papers on March 29. On Monday, Siddaramaiah launched his two-day campaign, while Shivakumar will hit the campaign trail on Wednesday and Thursday.
Patil has won three consecutive elections -- 2008, 2013 and 2018 -- from Maski. The last two victories, however, are on a Congress ticket.“Though Patil won twice as a Congress candidate, his victory margin last time was only 213 votes. It is difficult to predict the results this time,” opined political experts. The constituency has 2.06 lakh voters — 1.01 lakh men, 1.05 lakh women and 13 others.