Though the Lok Sabha election results were disappointing for the Congress leaders in the State, the victory by its candidates in Chitradurga and Tumkur is a sigh of relief, especially for Chitradurga district in-charge Minister H. Anjaneya and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G. Parameshwara.
However, the Congress failed to ensure S.S. Mallikarjun’s victory from the Davangere constituency even after having seven MLAs and a Minister.
The election was a matter of prestige for Mr. Anjaneya as he had managed to field an outsider, B.N. Chandrappa, amidst severe resistance from other aspirants in the district.
The victory margin of the Congress candidate was 76,484 votes.
Throughout the election campaign, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular) candidates had made attempts to convince voters that the Congress had fielded an outsider; hence development was not possible by him.
But, the anti-incumbency against BJP candidate Janardhanswamy was so strong that it dominated over the ‘Modi wave’ in the district.
In the last five years, the people of the district had high expectations from Mr. Janardhanswamy as he was highly qualified.
Davangere constituencyIn the Davangere constituency, BJP candidate G.M. Siddeshwar was aware of the fact that he had won the 2009 Lok Sabha elections by a small margin of 2,024 votes. His continued efforts to reach out to people in the rural areas of the district in the last five years helped him maintain a cordial relationship with grassroots-level leaders.
Moreover, his father G. Mallikarjun’s clean political image helped him gain sympathy from people.
And the ‘Modi wave’ was an additional support for him.
Compared to Mr. Siddeshwar, Mr. Mallikarjun from the Congress was not so accessible to people in the rural areas of the district.
