BIDAR: With candidates having been announced for the Bidar South constituency by both Congress and BJP, the big question that haunts the minds of the public as well as political observers is why late Gurupadappa Nagmarpalli’s second son Suryakanth opted out of the contest?
While the Congress has offered the ticket to former MLA Rahim Khan, who lost narrowly to Mr Gurupadappa in the 2013 Assembly election, the BJP has decided to field former MLA from Bhalki, Prakash Khandre, after offering the ticket to Suryakanth Nagmarpalli.
With the sympathy factor expected to play a major role in the by-election, Suryakanth, who is the political heir of late Bidar MLA Gurupadappa Nagmarpalli, was the natural choice of the saffron party for the by-election. Though technically Suryakanth is not a member of the BJP as he was expelled for anti-party activity during the previous Lok Sabha election, the saffron party accorded a red carpet welcome to him. Had it been some other candidate in place of Suryakanth, he would have literally lapped up the invitation to fight. But contrary to expectations, Suryakanth spurned the offer, raising eyebrows in political circles.
Considering the good relationship between former Deputy CM R. Ashok and Suryakanth, the BJP had appointed the former as observer for selecting the candidate, which was like entrusting the responsibility of convincing Suryakanth to Ashok. According to reliable sources, two factors compelled Suryakanth to spurn the offer. The first was the fear of facing revengeful action from the state government. With family members of Nagmarpalli controlling two major cooperative institutions in the district-Bidar District Central Cooperative Bank and Naranja Sahakar Sakkare Karkhane – the family members are worried that the Congress government would ‘misuse’ its power to supercede the bodies. The Siddaramaiah-led government had ordered an inquiry into the affairs of BDCC, at the instance of former CM Dharam Singh. “The Nagmarpalli family is worried that with Gurupadappa not around, the Congress government would find it easy to unsettle these bodies if Suryakanth tried to contesting on a BJP ticket. So the family members urged Suryakanth not to take the risk,” the sources informed.
The second factor was the threat of sabotage by the district BJP. “Suryakanth is disliked by most leaders in the district. The relations between him and local leaders soured after he worked against the party in the previous Lok Sabha election. Suryakanth knows that it's difficult to win the by-election without the active participation of district leaders”, observers opined.
Meanwhile the JD(S) has given the ticket to Mohammed Ayaz Khan, considering the strong Muslim presence in the constituency. Ayaz runs a chain of educational institutions in the district and was earlier a member of BSR Congress.
