The Hindu : Karnataka News : Dharam Singh all set to create history

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Friday, Apr 25, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Dharam Singh all set to create history

T.V. Sivanandan

GULBARGA: For 72-year-old Narayan Singh Dharam Singh, it will be a momentous occasion when he files his nomination papers on April 30 from Jewargi Assembly Constituency, which never failed him in the past eight elections. It he wins, he will create a history which no other politician in the country could achieve of entering an Assembly or Parliament from the same constituency for nine times.

Mr. Singh who had held different portfolios in the State Government since 1980, was Chief Minister for 20 months heading the first coalition government in the State after the 2004 Assembly elections. Although Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi holds the record of entering the Tamil Nadu Assembly for nine terms continuously, he did not win from the same constituency in all the elections.

Another feature of Mr Singh’s achievement is that he hails from a community which does not have more than 100 votes in Jewargi constituency. In the 36 years that Mr. Singh has been in politics, he has perfected the knack of converting adversity to advantage and keeping caste politics away by taking every section of society into confidence in all his decisions. “My success in Jewargi entirely belongs to the people of Jewargi who had showered love and affection on me and electing me for eight terms,” he said.

Mr. Singh started as an independent corporator in the Gulbarga City Municipal council and later joined the Congress party under Ms. Indira Gandhi and started his innings in Jewargi defeating three-time MP and founder-president of Hyderabad Karnataka Education Society Mahadevappa Rampure in 1972. He never looked back after that. He had also won the Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat in 1980 and vacated it for C.M. Stephen

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