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A keen battle in Tarikere

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHIKMAGALUR, APRIL 21. Popularly known as the gateway of Malnad, the Tarikere Assembly Constituency in the Chikmagalur Lok Sabha Constituency has preferred the Congress seven times.

Now, the Janata Dal (Secular) is trying to conquer this Congress bastion.

While the Congress has fielded T.H. Shivashankarappa, the Janata Dal (S) has given the ticket to S.M. Nagaraja, who was elected as an independent candidate in this constituency in 1994.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is also in the race with Omkarappa as its candidate.

The voters elected a Kuruba candidate here in 1952 and 1957, and had favoured Lingayat candidates till the previous election. T.R. Parameshwaraiah, Hanji Shivanna, H.R. Raju and B.R. Neelakantappa represented the constituency twice each.

According to people, it is a straight fight between Mr. Nagaraja and Mr. Shivashankarappa. As the Congress fielded a candidate from the Kuruba community after several years, now it looks like a battle between the Lingayat and Kuruba communities.

Mr. Shivashankarappa, who was with the Janata Dal (U), joined the Congress recently and got the Congress ticket. According to Congress sources, the party refused to nominate Mr. Neelakantappa as he antagonised people in the constituency during the previous term. However, there is a little heartburn in the Congress camp over the selection of Mr. Shivashankarappa.

The people say that the Saadaru sub-sect of the Lingayat community will decide the fate of candidates in this constituency.

Mr. Nagaraj belongs to the Nonaba sub-sect of the Lingayat community. The Saadaru community had called a meeting to take a decision in this regard.

If this community decides to vote for Mr. Nagaraj, then the Janata Dal (S) will have an edge over the Congress. A split in Saadaru votes will help Mr. Shivashankarappa.

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