Adagur Vishwanath is finally a happy man

Always angry, discontent and sarcastic, Adagur H Vishwanath is finally a happy man. The septuagenarian former minister and former MP, who has won six elections and lost seven of them, has become a people’s representative, without being elected by the people, for the first time. On Wednesday (July 22), he was nominated as a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council, the Upper House, along with four others.

Vishwanath is believed to have played a major role in pulling down the JD(S)-Congress coalition government on July 22, 2019. Coincidentally, on its first anniversary, Vishwanath was nominated. As he is also a literary person, who has penned a few books, he found a place in the Upper House as a writer.

4 decades in Congress

His political journey, which started as a youth leader under then chief minister D Devaraja Urs, has been interesting, as he abandoned Congress, which he served for over four decades, in 2017. On July 4, 2017, he joined the JD(S) and became its state president on August 5, 2018. Then he resigned from the president’s post on June 4, 2019, and then as MLA on July 6, 2019. Then, he joined the BJP on November 14, 2019, and sought re-election as BJP candidate on December 5, 2019.

Vishwanath, a prominent Kuruba leader, was elected as KR Nagar MLA for the first time in 1978. Among ten Assembly polls that he contested, he won four. He won in 1978, 1989, and 1999 from KR Nagar constituency, while he lost in 1983, 1985, 1994, 2004, and 2008. Later, he shifted to Mysuru-Kodagu Lok Sabha constituency, which he won in 2009 and lost in 2014. In 2018, he won from Hunsur, but was defeated in 2019.

Disqualification

When Vishwanath resigned as Hunsur MLA on July 6, 2019, along with 14 other MLAs, then Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar disqualified all of them, on July 28, 2019. The MLAs appealed against their disqualification before the Supreme Court, which upheld their disqualification on November 13, 2019. But, the court allowed them to contest the bypolls on December 5, 2019.

Vishwanath was Minister for Kannada and Culture in 1989 and Education Minister in 1999. He was a vehement critic of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and his sons H D Revanna and H D Kumaraswamy till he was in Congress. He started criticising Siddaramaiah, since he hinted at abandoning Congress. He left the Congress, citing disrespect by Siddaramaiah. Sa Ra Mahesh, who had defeated Vishwanath twice — in 2008 and 2013 — engineered his entry into JD(S). After Kumaraswamy became chief minister and Mahesh shot to prominence, Vishwanath had differences with Mahesh. Their public spat continued till recently.

New equations in BJP

Despite his defeat in the by-election to Hunsur Assembly constituency, Vishwanath has been nominated as MLC. Now, he is hopeful of becoming minister and made in-charge of Mysuru district. Thus, various factions, party leaders and workers in the BJP are exploring new combinations and equations.

However, there are no immediate effects, as present in-charge minister S T Somasekhar is very close to Vishwanath. Former minister S A Ramadass, who was expecting a ministerial berth, as Mysuru region is largely unrepresented in the Cabinet, is his usual, just concentrating on his constituency.