Polls: its time for netas to prove their mettle

Re-election to Ward No 41: Triangular fight on the cards

Moreover, it has assumed significance as the testing ground for Medical Education and District In-charge Minister S A Ramdas, Congress MLA Tanveer Sait and Janata Dal (Secular) MLC Sandesh Nagaraj to prove their mettle. Also, an acid test for Congress that had fared poor in all the by-elections held in the recent past.

BJP that lost its representative Narayanappa in MCC, owing to a local court’s ruling pronouncing him guilty of submitting false certificate to contest the polls from Ward 41 reserved for ST candidates during the elections three years ago, has fielded R Srinivas.
Though a fledgling in poll battle, Srinivas knows the tactics, as he is the close aide of Narayanappa. Obviously, he is riding high on his mentor’s popularity.

Congress that had lost the previous polls against BJP by a wafer thin margin of 40 votes, has fielded Raveendra Kumar. Govinda alias ‘Koli’ Govinda had contested that time.
Interestingly, Raveendra Kumar too had contested the same polls on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, but had garnered about 500 votes. This time, he is testing his luck from Congress fold. He was the pick of Tanveer Sait, sitting MLA of Narasimharaja Constituency, under which the ward is also situated.

Govinda alias ‘Koli’ Govinda who had moved court and won the case against Narayanappa that led to the cancellation of the latter’s councillorship, necessitating the re-election, ran out of luck as he couldn’t secure the ticket again. A close confidante of Opposition leader in Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah, he was hopeful of getting the ticket. But the party higher ups decided to field Raveendra taking cognisance of Sait’s words. As is the tradition in the Congress, local MLAs words get first preference. Janata Dal (Secular) has found a suitable candidate in N Raju, president of youth wing of N R Constituency. Raju was the choice of MLC Sandesh Nagaraj and Mayor Sandesh Swamy.

What is calculated as a bonus for Raju is his philanthropic works, besides being an ardent fan of Puneeth Rajkumar. Recently, he had organised a mass marriage ceremony and the guest was ostensibly Puneeth Rajkumar. In the previous polls, JD(S) candidate Madhu Keshav had finished third securing 600 votes. Now, the JD(S) leaders want to give a run for other candidates and have decided to play it strong, making it a triangular fight.
Sandesh Nagaraj had secured good number of votes in this ward when he had unsuccessfully contested the previous assembly elections on JD (S) ticket from N R Constituency. What makes the polls further curious is the parties have pitted candidates belonging to Nayaka community only, eyeing on the large chunk of the total 9,022 votes belonging to the same community. Nayakas are between 2,000 to 2,500 in numbers closely followed by muslims (2,500 votes), christians (1,500), lingayats (600) and others.
Most of the nayaka community votes are concentrated in Erangere alone.

 Nomination rejected

Of the total 15 nomination papers filed by nine candidates, returning officer and council secretary Gayathri has rejected one paper on Wednesday.

During scrutinisation process, the nomination paper of M Shankar had a different part and serial number in the given column against the voters list. Acting on this, his paper was rejected, while the other 14 papers were found in order. They are  of; R Srinivas, M Swamy, N Raju, S Swamy, Kiran J and Raveendra Kumar (all two set of papers), Annaiah Swamy and M Mahesh. The last date to withdraw nomination papers is October 29, 3 pm.