The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : This debutant has come up the hard way

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Monday, Jun 30, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

This debutant has come up the hard way

Raghava M.

Mohan Limbikai’s victory in Council polls has come as a surprise

Limbikai is one of successful criminal lawyers
He defeated veteran Congress leader H.K. Patil

Mohan A. Limbikai

BANGALORE: For 49-year-old Mohan A. Limbikai of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who defeated veteran Congress leader H.K. Patil in the elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council from Karnataka West Graduates constituency, it has been a hard climb up the political ladder to enter the portals of State Legislature.

A debutant to politics, Mr. Limbikai was pitted against a well-entrenched politician who nursed chief ministerial ambitions in a constituency that has been Mr. Patil’s pocket-borough for nearly a quarter century.

Successes

Mr. Patil made his presence felt way back in 1984, and grew stronger with the successes in the subsequent three elections. The Karnataka West Graduates constituency, comprising of the four districts of Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Uttar Kannada, had become the political turf of Mr. Patil.

On the other hand, Mr. Limbikai, one of successful criminal lawyers in this part of Karnataka, was a new entrant to politics when he joined the BJP a few years ago. Before that, he was associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishat activities.

He won from the Graduates Constituency to become a member of the Senate of the Karnatak University and later moved to on become a member of the University’s Syndicate. For a term, he was also vice-chairman of Karnataka Bar Council. As vice-president of the Karnataka State Government Daily Wage Workers’ Federation, Mr. Limbikai was associated with movement to regularise the services of daily wage workers.

It came as a total surprise to many when Mr. Limbikai, who apparently had no godfather in politics, caught the fancy of the BJP leadership, including Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. He was picked up quite in advance to enable him to take on the formidable Patil.

Mr. Limbikai started the work in gusto and immersed himself in registration of voters. More than 71,000 graduate voters were enrolled, which is the highest ever registration made so far in the electoral history.

As the counting details revealed, it was not the achievements of Mr. Patil which mattered but the kind of BJP wave which was noticed in these parts during the Assembly elections that proved to be crucial.

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