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Congress drubbed in Belgaum district

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, MAY 13. The Congress was drubbed in Belgaum district and two Ministers, V.S. Koujalgi (Arabhavi) and D.B. Inamdar (Kittur), could not make it to the Assembly.

While the BJP put up an excellent show by winning both the Lok Sabha seats and eight Assembly seats in the district, the Janata Dal (U) and the Janata Dal (S) bagged one seat each while Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES) won two.

The Janata Party of Vijay Mallya and Kannada Nadu of Vijay Sankeshwar fared poorly. The Congress failed to retain the Belgaum Lok Sabha seat with Amarsinh Patil losing to the BJP candidate, Suresh C. Angadi, who won by a margin of 84,753 votes. The Congress had thrown its weight behind Shyam B. Ghatage in the Chikkodi (reserved) Lok Sabha seat, but he could not overcome the challenge of Ramesh Jigajinagi, member of the dissolved Lok Sabha. Mr. Ghatage lost by a margin of 43,492 votes. Mr. Jigajinagi was elected on the Janata Dal (U) ticket in 1999 polls and contested as a BJP candidate this time.

The Congress which held 10 of the 18 seats in the district in the dissolved Assembly was able to retain only five seats. It just managed to retain the Belgaum City seat where Ramesh Kudachi polled 32,198 votes as against 31,181 by his nearest rival, Vilas Ramachandra Pawar of the BJP. The party also managed to retain Sadalga, Gokak, and Nippani constituencies where members of the dissolved Assembly, Prakash Hukkeri, Ramesh Jarkiholi, and Kakasaheb Patil defeated their BJP rivals.

The shock came in Arabhavi where the six-time MLA and former KPCC President, Mr. Koujalgi was defeated by Balchandra L. Jarkiholi (Janata Dal-S). Mr. Balachandra Jarkiholi is the brother of Ramesh Jarkiholi (Congress) and Satish Jarkiholi (Janata Dal-S). Mr. Koujalgi lost by a margin of 19,450 votes. Mr. Jarkiholi polled 62,054 votes as against 42,604 by the Minister.

In Kittur, Mr. Inamdar was defeated by the BJP's Suresh Marihal. The latter polled 49,970 votes as against 35,265 by Mr. Inamdar.

The voters seem to have "punished" non-performers and defectors. Four of the six Janata Dal (U) MLAs in the district joined the Congress on the eve of polls and even managed to get the ticket to contest as official candidates of the party. But it was only A.B. Patil (Sankeshwar) who could retain his seat while the other three — S.C. Malgi (Bagewadi), Mahantesh Koujalgi (Bailhongal), and Umesh Katti (Hukkeri) were defeated by BJP candidates.

The BJP emerged as a major winner in the district by bagging eight Assembly seats.

The MES, which had lost its electoral base in its traditional strongholds of Belgaum, Khanapur, and Uchagaon in the last elections, made an impressive comeback, except in Belgaum. Its candidates won from Uchagaon and Khanapur. The MES candidate, Manohar Kallappa Kinekar, polled 42,483 votes and defeated his nearest rival, Sambhaji Patil of the Congress, who polled 31,277 in Uchagaon. Manohar Kadolkar, who won the seat on a BJP ticket last time but later associated himself with the Congress, lost his deposit. The other MES candidate to win was Digambar Yeshwantrao Patil from Khanapur.

The Janata Dal (U), which contested as an ally of the BJP, won in Raibag. Its candidate, Bhimappa Chennappa Sarikar, defeated the Congress candidate by a margin of over 10,000 votes.

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