Devadurga: In a setback to the Congress, it has lost its Devadurga Assembly seat to the BJP by a huge margin of 16,871 votes. While Mr Shivanagouda Naik of the BJP bagged 72,647 votes, Mr Rajashekhar Naik of the Congress polled 55,776.
Surprisingly G Karemma of the Janata Dal (S), who was dismissed as a nonentity in the contest, managed to get 9,156 votes. An independent candidate, Shivaraj Dore, got 1837 votes and as many as 1708 voters went for the NOTA option.
The loss is especially disappointing for the Congress government in the state as it announced a special package of Rs 200 crore for the constituency on the eve of the by-poll and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself visited the constituency thrice to campaign.
But observers here believe the party has paid the price for its choice of candidate as Mr Rajashekhar Naik is not popular in the constituency.
Brother of Member of Parliament, B V Naik, and president of the Raichur District Central Cooperative Bank, he is not held in high regard allegedly due to his “indolent” ways and his reported lack of empathy for people’s problems.
The Congress leadership had initially toyed with the idea of giving the ticket to its late MLA, Venkatesh Naik’s wife, Savitramma and cash in on the sympathy factor. But it later reportedly gave in to pressure from the Naik brothers and chose Mr Rajshekar instead.
Interestingly, the BJP candidate has won the bypoll on his own steam, and mainly due to his good rapport with the public as the entire top state leadership of the party stayed away from canvassing for him in Devadurga owing to his personal attack on former Chief Minister, B S Yeddyurappa, during the power struggle in the saffron party some years ago.
It was left to state vice-president, V Somanna to coordinate the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign in the constituency.
Mr Shivangouda Naik's attempt to play on the sympathy of voters by telling them he would rather die than lose an election again , having lost the 2013 Assembly election as well as the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, appears to have worked for him as well.
“This ploy has worked as voters seem to have decided to give him a chance as the late Venkatesh Naik’s son is already an MP,” said a senior Congress leader.
Bidar By-poll: Rahim keeps Congress hope alive
It was a day of highs and lows for the Congress on Tuesday. If it lost its Deodurga seat to the BJP, it won a spectacular victory in Bidar North where its candidate, Rahim Khan left the BJP’s Prakash Khandre trailing by 22,721 votes, the second highest victory margin for any candidate in the constituency since 1952.
Former chief minister Dharam Singh greets Rahim Khan of the Congress, who defeated Prakash Khandre of the BJP in the by-election to the Assembly from Bidar North constituency
Embarassingly for the JD(S), its candidate, Ayaz Khan lost deposit with only 4421 votes coming his way. Bahujan Samaj Party Madanna Vaijanath too failed to make any impact on the voters, winning a mere 1519 votes.
Most here believe the Congress managed to trump its rivals in this keenly watched byelection mainly due to its organised campaigning and the sound reputation of its candidate.
The confusion in the BJP camp, which did not finalise its candidate till the last day of filing of nominations is believed to have contributed to its defeat. In an upbeat mood following its victory in the recent election to the Legislative Council from the Bidar local body constituency, the Congress was in fighting mode and was ably led by former CM N. Dharam Singh in the campaign.
Despite the fielding of a Muslim by the JDS, the party managed to keep its Muslim vote intact and also ensure it got the backing of Dalits and Kurubas, who are in sizeable number in the constituency.
Mr Rahim Khan’s work in the area, especially during the last few months following the demise of sitting MLA, Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli, is also said to have helped the party greatly.
The BJP was placed at a disadvantage with Mr Suryakanth Nagaramaralli refusal to contest, which deprived it of the sympathy votes, say observers.
Its last minute decision to go with Mr Khandre does not seem to have go down well with the voters as he is from the neighbouring Bhalki constituency and has made little contribution to the constituency.
