Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress has managed to win both Bagalkot and Davanagere, the two seats that went for by-elections last month.
While the party managed a comfortable victory at Bagalkot, which was managed by Siddaramaiah, the Davanagere constituency, which was the responsibility of the Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and witnessed a lot of drama, the party just managed to scrape through.
From the beginning, the by-elections were viewed as a show of strength by Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar camps, since the leadership change issue is hotting up again.
The Congress had given the ticket to Umesh Meti, son of M Y Meti. The seat had fallen vacant due to the death of M Y Meti. Since the beginning, Siddaramaiah had taken the responsibility of the constituency for two reasons. First, Meti was very close to him and secondly, Meti also belonged to Siddaramaiah's Kuruba community.
Siddareamaiah had ensured that his close associate Sathish Jarkiholi and his son Dr Yathindra were stationed at Bagalkot throughout the election campaign period. Consequently, Umesh Meti won by a comfortable margin of 22,332 votes by polling over 98,919 votes.
However, in Davanagere, the Congress candidate managed to establish a slender lead of only 6500 votes, while SDPI managed to get more than 16,600 minority votes.
Davanagere, which fell vacant due to the death of Shamanur Shivashankarappa was troublesome from the beginning. The constituency has over 80,000 minority votes and Shamanur Shivashankarappa's close associate and MLC Abdul Jabbar wanted the ticket for himself. He was supported by Siddaramaiah's close associate B Z Zameer Ahamed Khan.
However, Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC President D K Shivakumar was hell bent on giving ticket to Samarth Shamanur,the grandson of Shamanur Shivashankarappa. Samarth's father S S Mallikarjun is Davanagere (North) MLA and minister, while his mother Prabhavathi is Davanagere MP.
When the party issued tickets to Samarth Shamanur, Zameer Ahamed Khan stayed away from the campaign. Suddenly, a total outsider Afsar Kodlipet filed nomination from SDPI. Shivakumar managed to garner minority votes through other MLAs like Salim Ahamed and Rizwan Arshad.
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Meanwhile, Vinay Kumar, who had contested against Shamanur Shivashankarappa as independent candidate during 2023 elections joined BJP. Since he was from Kuruba community, it was perceived that he was sent to BJP by Siddaramaiah camp to ensure defeat of Samarth.
Soon after the polling was conducted, Shivakumar ensured that Abdul Jabbar was suspended from the party itself and ensured that Chief Minister's political secretary Naseer Ahamed was sacked. He said that the party had enough proof for anti-party activities by both the leaders.
Interestingly, the SDPI managed to poll more than 16,500 votes and the margin between Congress and BJP was only around 6500 votes. Besides, other independent candidates from minority community also polled over 3000 votes, leaving Congress struggle for every vote.
