Even though Gundlupet, which is situated along Karnataka’s border with Tamil Nadu and Kerala, has faced 14 elections to the Legislative Assembly since Independence and is bracing up for its 15th on April 9, the constituency has been represented by only four MLAs in its history, which shows that re-election of the sitting MLAs is an electoral tradition here.
Except for the Assembly elections in 1978, when K.H. Shivarudrappa, a former MLA, defeated K.S. Nagarathnamma and upset tradition, voters of the constituency have been re-electing the sitting MLA election after election.
While Ms. Nagarathnamma, who also served as Speaker of the Assembly, has been elected from Gundlupet on seven occasions, former Minister H.S. Mahadeva Prasad has been elected five consecutive times.
After Mr. Shivarudrappa won the first election along with Siddaiah in 1951, when Gundlupet was part of a two member Gundlupet-HD Kote segment, Ms. Nagarathnamma entered the fray from 1957 onwards from Gundlupet constituency. Her win on seven occasions was twice as an Independent and five times as Congress candidate, between 1957 and 1989. Her winning spree was, however, interrupted for one term when she lost to Mr. Shivarudrappa in 1978.
After her death, Mr. Mahadeva Prasad continued the winning tradition in five back-to-back elections, one time each as JD, JD(U), JD(S) candidate and twice as Congress candidate from 1994 till the last elections in 2013. So, another reason for the Congress and BJP to take the byelections seriously is the electoral tradition that favours the sitting MLA. Whoever wins can hope to play a long innings as an MLA of the constituency.
