Karnataka - Gulbarga   

It’s seasoned campaigner vs. newcomer Key constituency: gulbarga north

Seeking support: Congress candidate Qamar-ul-Islam during his campaign in Gulbarga North constituency.

GULBARGA: The newly created Gulbarga North Assembly Constituency after the bifurcation of the Gulbarga City Assembly Constituency in the delimitation process is witnessing a battle royale between a seasoned campaigner and a relative newcomer to electoral politics.

The former Minister Qamar-ul-Islam, who is fighting the election on Congress ticket, is a seasoned campaigner and this election is the eighth for him from Gulbarga. He had contested from the Gulbarga Lok Sabha and won the seat once.

He is facing a relative newcomer to politics and well-known industrialist B.G. Patil, who is contesting on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket.

Although the Janata Dal (Secular) has fielded Suresh Mahagoankar, the contest appears to be between the Congress and the BJP candidates in the constituency with the Janata Dal (Secular) nowhere in the picture.

Though the constituency is projected as Muslim-dominated, it is the non-Muslims who are in majority with more than 1.15 lakh voters. Muslims account for about 85,000 votes in the constituency which has a total electorate of just over two lakh.

Mr. Patil, hailing from a reputed family of industrialists, is a well-known philanthropist and runs a reputed education institution in Gulbarga.

He contested 2004 Assembly elections from Chitapur on the now defunct Kannada Nadu party ticket and recently joined the BJP and was nominated by the party.

Mr. Islam had been working in the constituency for the past one year after the news about the delimitation of the constituencies was released, and even before the formal announcement of the delimitation of the constituencies, he had created his own band of workers in all the wards and had begun his groundwork for campaign well before the Assembly elections were announced.

However, it was the BJP candidate who hit the road first with a high-pitched campaign soon after the party announced the list well in advance.

Sources in the BJP told The Hindu that Mr. Patil had completed one round of the tour of the constituency through door-to-door campaign and has now taken up the second round of door-to-door campaign in the city.

Mr. Islam, who lost the undivided Gulbarga Assembly seat in the 2004 elections by a margin of 4,200 votes to BJP candidate Chandrasekhar Patil Revoor, is determined to reverse the fortunes and win the seat.

Although Hindus outnumber Muslim voters in the constituency, any consolidation of Muslim, Backward Classes and Dalit votes in favour of the Congress would help the party.

Among the Hindus, Dalits and Backward Classes are in good number and would play a crucial role in deciding the winner.

Mr. Patil is also making a determined effort to make inroads into the Muslim strongholds and had reportedly enlisted the support of few Muslim leaders who were inimical to Mr. Islam.

However, sources close to Mr. Islam said that he had patched up with a few influential Muslim leaders and the BJP’s efforts to divide Muslim votes might not succeed.

Both Mr. Patil and Mr. Islam are not taking any chances and braving the searing heat wave conditions, undertaking door-to-door campaign covering every single house and voter. One of the major worries of both the candidates is the heat wave conditions and its effect on the polling on May 22.

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