Karnataka By-Polls See Congress, BJP Face Intense Internal Rebellion Over Candidate Selections
· Free Press Journal
Bengaluru: The by-polls to two Assembly constituencies in Karnataka -- Davanagere South and Bagalkot are turning out to be interesting as both Congress and BJP are facing stiff resistance from within the party against the official candidates.
The two seats fell vacant after two sitting ministers -- Shamanur Shivashankarappa from Davanagere and M Y Meti from Bagalkot passed away and the Congress has decided to field family members of the departed leaders in both the constituencies. The two constituencies will go for a poll on April 9.
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Soon after the by-elections were declared along with the general elections to Assembly in five states, the aspirants for ticket in both the constituencies from both the parties erupted. Davanagere South has been represented by Shamanur Shivashankarappa for the last four decades and his son S S Mallikarjun in Davanagere North MLA and Minister in the Siddaramaiah government. Mallikarjun's wife Prabha Mallikarjun is the Member of Parliament from Davanagere. They were seeking the ticket for Mallikarjun's son Samarth Shamanoor.
Soon after the election dates were declared, the Davanagere Muslim leaders urged the party to give ticket to a candidate from the minority candidate. They were backed by Housing Minister Zameer Ahamed Khan and the AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, held several rounds of talks.
Davanagere South Assembly constituency has around 80,000 Muslim votes. The problem in fielding a Muslim candidate is that it is a sensitive area and the move would unify all the Hindus. After several rounds of talks, Congress gave the ticket to Samarth Shamanoor. Immediately, Sadiq Pailwan, who was a front runner for the ticket, filed nomination as an independent.
However, there is hardly any reason for the BJP to smile. During the previous Parliament elections, Davanagere district witnessed an internal bickering between former MP Siddeshwar and former minister Renukacharya. When Renukacharya was denied a ticket and Siddeshwar's wife was given the ticket, Renukacharya worked against his party candidate and ensured defeat of BJP in Davanagere Parliament constituency.
This time also, Renukacharya wanted the party to field his supporter as Davanagere South candidate. However, Siddeshwar convinced the party that the BJP should be giving a ticket to ST candidate, as SC/ST candidate votes in the constituency is around 75,000. Consequently, the party has given ticket to Srinivas Dasa Kariyappa, leaving Renukacharya red faced.
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In Bagalkot, the Congress faced a precarious problem. While the party decided to give a ticket to a family member of M Y Meti, his four children started squabbling for the ticket. Elder son Mallikarjun, two daughters -- Bayamma and Mahadevamma along with the youngest son Umesh Meti became contenders. At the end, Siddaramaiah intervened and convinced all the children and a ticket was issued to youngest son Umesh Meti.
Meanwhile, even BJP, which had lost the seat during previous general elections in 2023 had three contenders. Two former MLAs -- Charantimutt and Poojar wanted tickets for themselves, while Hanumanth Nirani, brother of former minister Murugesh Nirani also threw his hat in the ring. The party has decided to field Charanthimutt, leaving the two others miffed.