The Hindu : Karnataka News : BJP fighting former members in Shimoga

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

BJP fighting former members in Shimoga

Pramod Mellegatti

Congress, Janata Dal (S) and Samajwadi Party candidates have been fielded by the BJP in earlier elections

S. Bangarappa

SHIMOGA: An interesting feature of the Shimoga Lok Sabha byelection scheduled for June 2 is that the candidates of the three major parties fighting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were earlier members of the BJP.

S. Bangarappa of the Samajwadi Party, Ayanur Manjunath of the Congress and L.T. Thimmappa Hegde of the Janata Dal (S) were all associated with the BJP.

The BJP's candidate, M.B. Bhanu Prakash, has risen from the ranks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He was president of the district unit of the party when he was selected as the candidate. Though he is novice to parliamentary elections, he has an impressive record of achievements as a member of the zilla panchayat.

Mr. Bangarappa, a former Chief Minister, sprang the biggest surprise of his long and chequered political career when he joined the BJP and became its candidate in Shimoga in the 2004 Lok Sabha election. His stint with the party, however, lasted hardly a year.

He joined the BJP expecting that he would get a plum portfolio in the Union Ministry if the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was voted to power. Though he was elected to the Lok Sabha, the NDA failed to come to power at the Centre.

Ayanur Manjunath

He decided to quit the BJP when his efforts to become the president of the party's State unit failed. His resignation from the party as well as the Lok Sabha necessitated the byelection.

Mr. Bangarappa then decided to join the Samajwadi Party led by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav. Mr. Bangarappa was made the president of the State unit of the party and fielded as its candidate from Shimoga by Mr. Yadav with the objective of getting a foothold for his party in the State.

Mr. Manjunath too was a member of the BJP. He joined it after serving the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (the labour wing of the BJP) in various capacities.

M.B. Bhanu Prakash

Known for his dynamism, Mr. Manjunath did not take long to rise in the party. When he was aspiring for the party ticket from the Shimoga Assembly constituency, he was asked to contest from Hosnagar constituency, which he did successfully.

After establishing his credentials as an MLA, he was nominated as the BJP candidate for the 1996 Lok Sabha elections. He, however, lost to Mr. Bangarappa, who contested as the Karnataka Congress Party (KCP) candidate.

But Mr. Manjunath came to be considered as a "giant-killer" when, in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, he defeated Mr. Bangarappa, who had until then been invincible. But his stint as an MP was short-lived and he was defeated by Mr. Bangarappa in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.

Though he was made the president of the BJP district unit, his claim for the party ticket to contest the 2004 Assembly elections from Hosnagar was not considered as the party had to give up the seat in favour of the Janata Dal (U) with which it had an electoral alliance.

Mr. Manjunath then received an unexpected offer from the president of the Janata Party, Vijay Mallya, to head its State unit. Even as he was campaigning for the party for the 2004 elections, he was approached by the Congress and asked to be its candidate for the Lok Sabha election from the Shimoga constituency, which he accepted.

Renominated

Though he lost that election to Mr. Bangarappa, who was the BJP candidate, Mr. Manjunath has been renominated this time.

Mr. Manjunath appears to be more relaxed than his rivals as the Congress is taking the campaign far more seriously than before. The fact that the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), B. Janardhana Poojary, and a host of Ministers and prominent workers have been camping here to ensure Mr. Manjunath's victory points to its determination to bring about the defeat of Mr. Bangarappa.

L.T. Thimmappa Hegde

The other candidate in the four-cornered contest is Mr. Hegde of the JD(S). He was the Congress MLA for Sagar for two terms in 1978 and 1983. He subsequently joined the BJP but was defeated in the 1999 Assembly elections.

He remained in the BJP until he was approached by the JD(S) to contest the Lok Sabha byelection as its candidate.

Being an active member of cooperative societies, Mr. Hegde has led several agitations in support of areca growers and other popular causes. His campaign is being spearheaded by the JD(S) president, H.D. Deve Gowda, and Ministers from the party.

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