Change of parties proves lucky for M Narayanaswamy

The results of the by-poll in Bangarpet seem to support for a change of parties, what with M Narayanaswamy, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP under Operation Lotus, emerging victorious.

In contrast, the Congress, which used every card it had to beat him, ended up losing the by-election.

The party had roped in the influence of film star-turned-politician Chiranjeevi too, who visited the taluk just before poll-time and staged a mage procession as part of the campaign in favour of industrialist and Congress candidate K M Narayanaswamy.

The loss, however, proved the heaviest for Union Minister of State for Railways K H Muniyappa, who had remained in Bangarpet during the election time, and worked a lot campaigning for the Congress.

Worse still is the condition of the JD(S), which had been trying desperately to find footing in the taluk. Neither the efforts taken by H D Kumaraswamy nor his influence as former Chief Minister worked for the party.

Strange challenge

All the three parties- Congress, BJP and JD(S)- had to face a lot of challenges at the time of the poll.

The Congress had to overcome competition not just from outside, but also within the party. The BJP had to fight the objections raised by its competitors against Operation Lotus and their steps to overcome its move to gather legislators from other parties. For the JD(S) it was a problem of too many at the helm, thereby giving rise to low levels of unity and organisation.

The results, at the end, have reflected the way in which each party handled its challenges.

Facing the mirror

Accusing Union Minister Muniyappa of creating "a suffocating atmosphere" in the party and also preventing any development work from being implemented in the region, M Narayanaswamy, who was the local legislator, decided to join the BJP. C Venkateshappa, who moved to the JD(S), also blamed Muniyappa for his move.

The Congress, therefore, had to face candidates who once belonged to the party itself.
Former minister and JD(S) leader K Shrinivas Gowda, who is also a prominent political opponent of Muniyappa, worked towards just one goal- preventing a Congress victory.

The results have proven that although the JD(S) did not gain much from Gowda's efforts, Muniyappa and the Congress certainly lost.

Ironically, however, as the local saying goes, the fight between two parties resulted in a victory for a third, this time, the BJP.

Calculation

The by-election in Bangarpet, right from the start, was believed to have been a tussle between the BJP and the Congress, or between M Narayanaswamy and K H Muniyappa. The JD(S) was hardly considered present in the battle.

The same environment was found on Friday, during counting too. The results too showed a close contest, the Congress having lost by just 4044 votes to the BJP.

Now that the BJP candidate M Narayanaswamy has come up trumps and Union Minister K H Muniyappa has ended up losing his battle, the residents of Bangarpet are curious to find what effect the animosity would have over the development of the region.

Wait over?

Watching the drama from a short distance is legislator R Varthur Prakash, who is trying to remind Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa of his promise to make Varthur a minister if M Narayanaswamy won the by-poll.

Farewell to JD(S) within a month

C Venkateshappa, who lost the by-poll, declared on Friday right at the entrance to the counting centre that he would resign from the JD(S).

It was barely a month since he moved from the Congress to the JD(S).
He preferred to spend time with BJP members when the counting process was on. While the other candidates inquired about the figures regularly, Venkateshappa seemed hardly anxious about the outcome and did not bother to even have a look at the list.

When the results were announced, and the election officer declared that the Congress candidate, K M Narayanaswamy, had lost, Venkateshappa smiled and said he was happy.