BELAGAVI: A senior Congress leader Prakash Hukkeri registered a comfortable victory in the MLC elections held to North West Teachers Constituency bagging 11460 first preferential votes against 6405 taken by his nearest rival Arun Shahapur of the BJP.
A five-time former MLA and former MP from Chikkodi, Hukkeri maintained a steady lead from Round-I of the counting of ballots and finally won by a margin of 5045 votes. He has achieved a rare feat of winning elections to state Assembly, Council and Lok Sabha in his political career spanning more than four decades.
The Congress party had fielded him ignoring several potential leaders who had lobbied for the party ticket. He had resigned from the cabinet of former CM Siddaramaiah and contested the 2014 Lok Sabha successfully from Chikkodi seat.
However, he had been making all out attempts to re-enter the state politics for the past few years and eventually contested the MLC elections to make it possible. Hukkeri served in the state cabinet for several years and held important portfolios in the previous Congress governments.
Hukkeri says, the works which he had been able to get implemented in his constituency as an MLA for five times and MP once helped him win the MLC election from North West Teachers Constituency easily.
He also recalled the series of developmental works which were taken up during his tenure as MLA in the education sector in Belagavi region and said, several important educational institutions were set up in Belagavi and Chikkodi region due to his efforts.
A resident of Examba village in Chikkodi taluk, Hukkeri said had been able to develop a good rapport with the voters over the years and was confident that they would continue to rally behind him. He assured that he would work for the welfare of the teachers community as an MLC in the coming days.Several Congress leaders joined in his victory celebration today and slammed the BJP for hurling abusive words against Hukkeri ahead of the MLC elections. They said the works taken up by Hukkeri as a leader for the past few decades brought him victory.