Rakshith Shivaram, Congress candidate for Belthangady Assembly constituency. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The young Congress candidate Rakshith Shivaram, whose uncle is senior Congress leader and MLC B.K. Hariprasad, has been facing a challenge of dethroning the sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Harish Poonja in this constituency located on the foothills of the Western Ghats.
Mr. Poonja, a surprise choice by the BJP in 2018, managed to get over 98,000 votes. He defeated Congress candidate and five-time MLA K. Vasanth Bangera by a margin of nearly 23,000 votes in 2018. The BJP consolidated its position in the constituency in the 2019 Parliament election when its candidate and BJP State President Nalin Kumar Kateel got 1.06 lakh votes from the constituency.
Since 1983, the mainline parties have fielded family members of K. Vasant Bangera and K. Gangadhara Gowda, who respectively belong to Billava and Gowda communities – the two dominant communities of the constituency.
Brief history of candidates
Mr. Vasant Bangera contested in the constituency nine times — twice from BJP ticket, thrice from Congress ticket and four times from the Janata Dal (S). He won twice as BJP candidate in 1983 and 1985, once with JD (S) ticket in 1994 and twice as Congress candidate in 2008 and 2013.
Mr. Bangera’s brother K. Prabhakar Bangera contested five times with BJP ticket and won in 1999 and in 2004.
K. Gangadhara Gowda, who heads Prasanna Education Trust, contested six times of which five times from the Congress ticket and ones with JD(S) ticket. He won in 1978 and 1989. His son Rajan Gowda unsuccessfully contested with BJP ticket in 2013 and he joined Congress in March 2019. Gangadhara Gowda was Congress ticket aspirant for 2023 election.
Bunts community
The BJP heralded a change in 2018 by fielding Mr. Poonja, who belong to Bunts community, who are very less in number in the constituency.
Nestled in the pristine Western Ghats, the Belthangady Assembly constituency is among the constituencies in Karnataka that has good forest cover. It has a good number of education institutes and well known Manjunatha temple in Dharmasthala. This constituency has good presence of native Malekudiya tribe. Many from these tribe still continue to stay in the fringes of forest and fight for road connectivity and power connection. This region has over 1,200 Endosulfan victims, whose demand for permanent rehabilitation centre is yet to realised. The constituency thrives on agriculture with arecanut, coconut and rubber plantations.
The Communist Party of India (Maxist) is supporting Congress candidate in this election.
Sitting MLA Mr. Poonja is banking on road, water and other development projects being carried out across the district.
In all, eight candidates are in the fray. In addition to the Congress and the BJP, other candidates include an Independent, three candidates from Registered Unrecognised Political Parties, a candidate each from the AAP and JD(S).
