The Hindu : Will the Congress retain the seat?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 07, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Will the Congress retain the seat?

By Shivaraja B. Nanjhappa

TUMKUR, MARCH 6. The Tumkur Lok Sabha constituency comprises eight Assembly segments: Tumkur, Tiptur, Turuvekere, Kunigal, Huliyurudurga, Gubbi, Bellavi and C.N. Halli. In the 13 general elections and two byelections held so far, the Congress won 11 times, the BJP twice and the Janata Dal and the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) once each. The PSP dislodged the Congress as early as in the 1967 elections.

In the 1957 elections, Tiptur was made a separate Lok Sabha constituency, and C.R. Basappa, who won from Tumkur in 1952, was shifted to Tiptur. M.V. Krishnappa was elected from Tumkur in 1957, and in 1962 when Tiptur was again made a part of the Tumkur constituency. Tumkur also elected a Congress leader from North India in a byelection in 1962 when Mr. Krishnappa resigned and made way for Ajit Prasad Jain from New Delhi. Mr. Jain's resignation in 1965 led to another byelection, which was won by Mali Mariyappa.

In the 1999 elections to the 13th Lok Sabha, there were 10,99,748 voters, including 5,41,267 lakh women. As many as 8,00,018 of them cast their votes. The Congress candidate, G.S. Basavaraju, polled 3,18,922 lakh votes defeating his nearest rival, the BJP candidate, S. Mallikarjunaiah, who got 2,54,985 lakh votes. The Janata Dal (S) candidate, C.N. Bhaskarappa, finished third with 1,90,295 lakh votes.

Mr. Basavaraju had won from Tumkur seat in 1984 and 1989 also. He had, in a way, inherited the seat from his political guru, the late K. Lakkappa, veteran Congress leader who won from Tumkur four times in 1967, 1971, 1977 and 1980. The Congress lost the Tumkur seat in 1996 and 1998, when Mr. Basavaraju was not nominated as its candidate. The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee has already cleared Mr. Basavaraju's name as its candidate for the April 20 elections to the 14th Lok Sabha.

Nine of the 13 MLAs from Tumkur district in the dissolved Assembly were from the Congress, and two of them, T.B. Jayachandra and G. Parameshwar, are Cabinet Ministers.

There are 2.85 lakh Lingayat voters, as per the statistics of the 1999 elections and 2.65 lakh Vokkaliga voters. Three Lingayats — the late Basappa, Mr. Basavaraju (both Congress) and Mr. Mallikarjunaiah (BJP) — were elected altogether seven times, and three Vokkaligas — the late Krishnappa, Mariyappa and Lakkappa — six. The late Bhaskarappa from the Kuruba community (other backward classes) and A.P. Jain, who held the seat for brief periods, were the exceptions.

The constituency has more than 25,000 Brahmin voters and nearly 1 lakh voters from the minority communities. There are 2.02 lakh Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe voters and 1.73 lakh other backward class voters.

The BJP is still undecided on its candidate. Mr. Mallikarjunaiah, who was the Deputy Speaker of the 10th Lok Sabha, is considered the most likely candidate. He won the 1998 elections but lost in 1999. S. Shivanna, who represented Tumkur in the Assembly during the last two terms, is also considered a likely candidate.

The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, is said to be considering shifting to Tumkur from his Kanakapura constituency.

If he decides not to contest from Tumkur, his party, the Janata Dal (S), is likely to field either K.N. Rajanna or D.L. Jagadheesh, both former MLCs. Mr. Rajanna left the Congress and joined the Janata Dal (S) recently.

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