The Hindu : Karnataka News : Another Bangarappa vs. Manjunath contest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Another Bangarappa vs. Manjunath contest

Pramod Mellegatti

In the last four contests, Bangarapa has lost only once, in 1998

SHIMOGA: With the Congress candidate for the Shimoga Lok Sabha byelection, Ayanur Manjunath, filing his nomination papers here on Monday, the stage is set for a triangular contest for the seat.

This is the fifth time that Mr. Manjunath is involved in a contest against the former Chief Minister S. Bangarappa, who is contesting the June 2 byelection as the candidate for the Samajwadi Party, of which he is the State unit President.

Congress leaders including the Minister for Agricultural Marketing, Prakash Hukkeri; the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Treasurer, Shamanur Shivashankarappa; and the former Ministers Kagodu Thimmappa, D.B. Chandre Gowda, C. Sageer Ahmed and H.C. Srikantaiah were present when Mr. Manjunath filed his papers, and this shows the importance that the party has given to the byelection.

Campaigns picking up

Electioneering is gradually picking up, with the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, M.B. Bhanu Prakash, and Mr. Bangarappa intensifying their campaign.

In the last four contests since 1996, Mr. Bangarappa and Mr. Manjunath have changed their political loyalties. In 1996, Mr. Bangarappa, who contested as the Karnataka Congress Party (KCP) candidate founded by him after he quit from the Congress, defeated Mr. Manjunath, who was the BJP candidate. Mr. Manjunath acquired the sobriquet of "giant killer'' when he brought about the first-ever defeat of Mr. Bangarappa in his long and chequered political career in the 1998 Lok Sabha election.

Relegated

In that election, Mr. Bangarappa was pushed to the third place. D.B. Chandre Gowda of the Congress finished second behind Mr. Manjunath, who contested as the BJP candidate. But in the elections in 1999 and 2004, Mr. Bangarappa won against Mr. Manjunath. He was the Congress candidate in 1999 and the BJP's nominee in 2004. Mr. Manjunath contested the 1999 election on the BJP ticket and the 2004 election on the Congress ticket.

Although four parties which have a nationwide presence are involved (the Congress, the BJP, the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal-S), it will be a triangular fight. The presence of the candidates of other parties is inconsequential as they do not have support in the constituency.

Nomination papers

With Mr. Bangarappa filing one more set of nomination papers here on Monday to contest as the Samajwadi Party candidate, the total number of nomination papers filed for the bypoll by 12 candidates has risen to 23. Monday was the last day for filing nomination papers.

The other candidates who filed their nomination papers on the last day were: Annadani Shobha (independent), Bhadre Shivappa (independent), B.J. Nagaraj (Samajwadi Party), Shivalingaswamy (Janata Party), Venkateshwar Rathod (Nationalist Congress Party), Basavaraj Patil (Janata Dal-United) and J.S. Satyanarayana (Janata Dal-U).

Scrutiny of the nomination papers will take place on Tuesday. The last date for withdrawal of the nomination papers is May 19.

Chamarajpet: 15 in fray

Fifteen candidates have filed their nomination papers for the Chamarajpet Assembly byelection. They include Shahyar Khan, the candidate of the Samajwadi Party. Mr. Bangarappa was present when Mr. Khan filed his nomination papers.

The candidates of the major political parties are Zameer Ahmed of the Janata Dal (Secular), R.V. Devaraj of the Congress and Pramila Nesargi of the BJP.

Even as Mr. Bangarappa was leading a procession on J.C. Road here before Mr. Khan filed his nomination papers, his son, Kumar Bangarappa, MLA, who has fallen out with him, accompanied Mr. Manjunath, who filed his nomination papers for the Shimoga seat.

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