The Hindu : Karnataka News : Anti-incumbency leads to Congress debacle in Chikmagalur

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 17, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Anti-incumbency leads to Congress debacle in Chikmagalur

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHIKMAGALUR, MAY 16. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won only one of the eight Assembly seats in the Chikmagalur Lok Sabha Constituency in the 1999 election, succeeded in wresting five seats from the Congress this time.

The BJP candidates, who lost to Motamma, Sageer Ahmed and D.B. Chandre Gowda of the Congress in the last election, defeated them.

The former Chairman of the Legislative Council, B.L. Shankar of the Congress, and D.K. Taradevi of the Janata Dal (Secular) faced defeat.

The Congress made all efforts to retain its hold on the Chikamagalur Lok Sabha Constituency, which is considered as its bastion.

The constituency is known for electing Congress candidates to the Lok Sabha 10 times.

Mr. Chandre Gowda, who won the seat in the 1971 and 1977 elections, resigned in 1978 to enable Indira Gandhi to enter the Lok Sabha. Mr. Shankar defeated Ms. Siddartha in 1996.

However, she was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 and 1991 as a Congress candidate.

The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, D.C. Srikantappa, did a hat-trick by defeating Mr. Shankar and Ms. Siddartha in the Chikmagalur Lok Sabha Constituency this time.

He won by a margin of 73,622 votes.

Many factors led to the debacle of the Congress in the district.

The defeat of four political heavyweights of the Congress proves that the anti-incumbency factor worked against it.

Besides, the voters seem to have had a feeling that the Congress Government had neglected the district in terms of development.

The vexed Datta Peetha issue, though not raised during the election campaign, helped Sunil Kumar, joint convener of Bajrang Dal, in the Karkala Assembly Constituency and C.T. Ravi in the Chikamagalur segment.

The delay in issuing "pattas", authorisation certificates to cultivate land, to tribal people living in the Kudremukh National Park (KNP) and the eviction of encroachers from the Thatkola Reserve Forest in Moodigere taluk worked against the prospects of the Congress candidates.

The Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Chandre Gowda, who promised the tribal people that "pattas" would be issued to them, did not fulfil it.

This is considered as one of the factors leading to his defeat in the Sringeri segment.

The encroachment upon the forest land became a major issue during the election campaign.

Though the court had directed the Forest Department to reclaim 244.5 hectares of land in the Thatkola Reserve Forest, the State Government did not act on it.

This seems to have angered the people in the Moodigere Assembly Constituency. It reflected in the debacle of Ms. Motamma, Minister for Women and Child Welfare.

The "failure" on part of the Housing Minister, Sageer Ahmed, to take up development works in the Chikmagalur Assembly Constituency from where he was elected thrice, seems to have led to his defeat this time.

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