Women take on mantle of Davengere’s 2 big political families

The Davangere Lok Sabha constituency is all set to witness a keen electoral battle between women from the district’s two most influential political families, aligned to the BJP and the Congress. 

The political rivalry between the families of Davangere MP G M Siddeshwara and veteran Congress leader and MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa is some three decades old.

The two families have been fighting it out in the Lok Sabha elections since 1998. Except in 1998, it has always been the Siddeshwara family that triumphed over the Shamanur family in parliamentary polls.

So far, the Siddeshwara family has won the Davangere seat six times. Of them, four times against Shamanur family and lost to the rival family once. However, Shamanur family’s political hold in the Assembly elections in Davangere (especially the Davangere South segment) is intact.

This time, Gayathri Siddeshwara, wife of four-time MP and former union minister G M Siddeshwara, is all set to take on Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of district incharge Minister S S Mallikarjun. She is likely to be fielded and only the official announcement is awaited.

Prabha is the daughter-in-law of veteran Congress leader and Davangere South MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa.

G Mallikarjunappa, father of G M Siddeshwara, had contested the Lok Sabha polls from Davangere in 1996 and emerged victorious against the then Janata Dal nominee S H Patel, brother of former chief minister J H Patel, with 2,68,962 votes. It was the maiden victory for BJP in Davangere constituency.

In 1998, Shamanur Shivashankarappa managed to register victory against the then BJP nominee Mallikarjunappa, with 3,43,704 votes. However, in 1999 Lok Sabha polls, Mallikarjunappa managed to register victory against Congress nominee Shamanur, with 3,98,969 votes.Following the death of G M Mallikarjunappa, his son Siddeshwara entered the fray as BJP nominee in 2004 and emerged victorious against the then Congress nominee S S Mallikarjun, with 3,70,499 votes.

The constituency witnessed a photo finish in the contest between these two nominees in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha polls, with Siddeshwara of the BJP scraping through.

The Shamanur family had fielded H B Manjappa of Kuruba community in the 2019 polls. But Siddeshwara of the BJP managed to retain the seat.   

The Davangere Lok Sabha constituency, comprising eight Assembly segments, is dominated by the Veerashaiva Lingayat community.

Both the families belong to the Sadar sub-caste in Lingayat community and they are relatives also.

Two women from these two families are facing off for the first time in an election. 

The Shamanur family is treating this as the right opportunity to take political revenge against the Siddeshwara family for four defeats in a row. On the other hand, Siddeshwara family will leave no stone unturned to tighten its hold over the constituency.