It’s the day of rebels in Council polls

Belagavi: Basangouda Patil Yatnal and Vivekrao Patil whose demand for a poll ticket was rejected by the BJP and Congress respectively, taught a fitting lesson to their parties winning their seats as rebels.

A popular leader from Vijayapura, Basangouda Patil took the contest in two-member Vijayapura-Bagalkot constituency as a challenge and vowed to win as the first MLC from Vijayapura from the local bodies seat. He virtually finished the political career of sitting MLC G.S. Nyamgouda of BJP. Yatnal's whirlwind campaigns and rising popularity among voters in most local bodies in the two-member constituency had badly affected the morale of BJP leaders giving them a clear indication a week before the election that their candidate would bite the dust.

Although Lingayat votes split three-way between Yatnal, Nyamgouda and S.R. Patil of Congress, Yatnal managed to have a bigger share due to his cordial relations with most Lingayat maths in Vijayapur and Bagalkot. A large section of traditional voters of Congress and BJP were upset over major parties fielding candidates only from Bagalkot in every election. Many of them had questioned why only S.R. Patil and Nyamgouda were repeatedly fielded by their parties ignoring other potential leaders.

Undeterred by his suspension from the BJP prior to election, Yatnal fought single-handedly to prove his popularity.