BJP opens account with Prasad's 6th entry in Ch'nagar

First for BJP

For the first time, BJP has opened the account in Chamarajanagar (SC Reserve) Lok Sabha segment, with the victory of V Srinivas Prasad. Prasad, who contested on a BJP ticket, defeated Congress’ R Dhruvanarayan by a margin of 1,817 votes.

The Congress was the most successful party in Chamarajanagar constituency as it has won 12 polls since 1951.

It was a neck-to-neck race between Prasad and Dhruvanarayan since morning itself. Prasad managed to secure a total of 5,68,537 votes and Dhruvanarayan obtained 5,66,720 votes.

Dhruvanarayan maintained a lead from the beginning of the counting, but, the celebration among the Congress party workers did not last long as the trend changed by evening. Even Dhruvanarayan, who assumed himself as winner, thanked his supporters on the social media.

Dhruvanarayan was ahead of Prasad till the last two rounds of counting. But, Prasad took over Dhruvanarayan by 253 votes. However, by the end of the counting, Prasad was declared as the winner with the margin of 1,817 votes. While Dhruvanarayan secured 966 votes among postal ballots, Prasad obtained 1,527 postal votes.

Counting delay

As there were technical glitches in 28 EVMs of Kollegal Assembly segments, the counting was delayed by more than a hour. The authorities were not able to count the votes in the EVMs and decided to count VVPAT slips.

Sixth entry for Prasad

Although it is the maiden victory for the BJP, it’s the sixth entry for Prasad from the same constituency. He was elected as MP five times earlier -- four times on Congress ticket and once on Janata Dal (United) ticket -- and also served as Union Minister of State in the A B Vajapayee-lead NDA government. For Prasad, this is the eighth Lok Sabha poll.

The BJP fielded its candidate for the first time in 1991 and it had extended support to Prasad, when he contested on Lokajanashakti ticket in 1999 election. In 2004, BJP supported JD(S). In 2009 and 2014 elections, BJP had fielded A R Krishnamurthy, who tasted defeat against Congress’ Dhruvanarayan.

Prasad was reluctant to contest in the polls this time. He contested, succumbing to party workers’ pressure. Prasad, 71, has faced 14 elections from the last 41 years and had decided to stay away from electoral politics after he was defeated in the Nanjangud by-polls in 2017.