“Though our team won, the captain was out for a duck”, was how a supporter of former Minister A.H. Vishwanath reacted to his shocking loss in the Hunsur bypolls.
An architect of the collapse of Congress-JD (S) government and installation of B.S. Yeddiyurappa-led BJP government in July this year, Mr. Vishwanath, along with M.T.B. Nagaraj of Hoskote, lost the bypolls while the remaining 12 disqualified MLAs successfully returned to the Assembly they had quit as coalition MLAs.
Though he is credited with successfully scripting the resignation drama of 17 coalition MLAs, Mr. Vishwanath appears to have lost the plot after changing his decision on contesting the bypolls.
Soon after resigning from the Assembly as JD(S) MLA, he had declared that he was retiring from electoral politics. BJP leaders from Mysuru said he had preferred the Legislative Council route to be accommodated in the B.S. Yeddiyurappa-led Ministry.
But, the former Minister soon changed his mind and announced that he would contest the byelections and entered the fray as BJP candidate.
Given advice
According to sources, senior leaders including Chamarajanagar MP V. Srinivas Prasad had advised Mr. Vishwanath against contesting in view of the hostile atmosphere against him in Hunsur soon after he had quit the Assembly and brought down the H.D. Kumaraswamy government in the process.
While former Minister S.R. Mahesh kept Mr. Vishwanath engaged in a war of words over bribery charges, former Minister C.P. Yogeshwar is believed to have started preparing the ground to contest the byelections from Hunsur.
Meanwhile, the byelections had to be postponed in view of the time taken by the Supreme Court to decide on their petitions against the disqualifications.
Sources added that Mr. Vishwanath decided to contest as he hoped to win over the people of Hunsur in view of the considerable time that had passed since he had resigned. Also, Mr. Vishwanath reportedly feared that he would lose his political relevance if he allowed others to contest from Hunsur.
Hence, in retrospect, Mr. Vishwanath’s decision to stay out of the electoral race would have been right in the light of the Congress candidate H.P. Manjunath defeating him.
