Karnataka - Raichur   

Venkatesh Naik scrapes through

By Our Staff Correspondent

RAICHUR, MAY 14. The election results have comes as a setback for the Congress in Raichur district where it has been able to retain the Lok Sabha seat but lost its hold of three Assembly seats. The party candidate, A. Venkatesh Naik, who won by good margins in 1991, 1998 and 1999, was able to reach the victory mark after facing many difficulties in these elections. He defeated the former Minister, Raja Madan Gopal Naik, of the Janata Dal (Secular) by just 508 votes. Mr. Venkatesh Naik polled 2,89,424 votes, while Mr. Madan Gopal Naik secured 2,88,916 votes.

Political observers had said that the Congress would lose the Lok Sabha seat this time. Owing to factionalism and infighting, the party lost its credibility in Deodurga, Kalmala and Lingsugur Assembly segments in Raichur district and Shahapur and Surpur Assembly segments in Gulbarga district which form part of the constituency.

In addition, the former MLC, Basawaraj Patil Itagi, who joined the Janata Dal (S) after he was removed from the party during the elections for his alleged anti-party activity, had worked out a political strategy to defeat the Congress.

The polling statistics proved that Mr. Venkatesh Naik fared poorly in seven of the eight Assembly segments in the constituency. The segment-wise votes secured by him in this election with votes polled in the 1999 election are in brackets are: Yadgir 31,993 (36,928), Surpur 38,559 (47,845), Shahapur 37,754 (49264), Deodurga 27,614 (48,865), Raichur 38,901 (50,567), Kalmala 30,571 (38,524), Manvi 41,815 (51,534) and Lingsugur 42,356 (36,380).

In the Assembly elections, the Congress lost the Raichur seat to the Bharatiya Janata Party and Deodurga and Kalmala seats to the Janata Dal (S). It was able to retain the Manvi seat and gain the Sindhanoor seat.

The results in these segments have reflected the scoring of Mr. Venkatesh Naik. Except in Manvi, he polled fewer votes than those in the previous election.

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