Karnataka   

Known for its horticultural produce District profile: Bagalkot

BAGALKOT: Bagalkot district, which is well irrigated, is sugarcane country and is famous for its handloom and powerloom weaving centres that produce much-prized saris.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is faced with the challenge of proving that its spectacular performance in the 2004 elections in the district was not a flash in the pan.

The district has 15 sugarcane factories functioning non-stop for 365 days a year. The district is also known for its horticultural crops such as grapes and pomegranate, which apart from being marketed all over the country, is also much sought after in West Asia and Europe.

In the 2004 elections, the BJP won six of the seven Assembly seats in the district, handing out one of the worst ever defeats to the Congress. The Janata Dal (Secular) won the remaining seat. The share votes in favour of the Congress fell by 14.25 percentage points in 2004 elections when compared to its performance in 1999.

The Congress polled 32.06 per cent of the votes in the 1999 elections and won six seats, and the BJP, which polled 7.09 per cent of the votes, won the remaining seat.

The sudden increase in the vote share of the BJP was because of the transfer of the bulk of the Janata Dal (U) votes in the 2004 elections.

In the 1999 elections, the JD(U), which had a solid base in the district , secured 20.15 per cent of the votes, which was transferred to the BJP in 2004, taking its vote share to 27.81 per cent.

Political observers attribute the sudden change of fortunes for the Congress to the internal bickering between top leaders.

Strangely, it is leaders from outside the district, such as the former Minister H.K. Patil, the former Union Minister M.V. Rajasekharan and the former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who play a crucial role. Lack of unity among them has left the party in the lurch.

Along with this, deep-rooted caste equations decide the fortunes of the political parties. It is not only the major castes, but also the sub-castes that decide the fate of candidates.

In the delimitation exercise, although the number of constituencies remains the same, Guledgud has been done away with. The areas coming under the constituency have been included in Bagalkot and Badami constituencies.

A new constituency, Terdal, has been created with areas under Terdal Circle and parts of Mudhol, Jamkhandi and Mahalingapur circles.

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