In Koppal, the winner is always from Oppn party

In the 1989 Assembly elections, Mallikarjuna Divatar won as an independent candidate, but the Congress came to power in the State.

In 1994, Karadi Sanganna contested as an independent candidate and won, but the JD(S) became the ruling party. In 1999, Sanganna contested on a  JD(U) ticket, but the Congress came to power. He contested again on a BJP ticket in 2004, but was defeated.

The victorious candidate, K Basavaraj Itnal was from the Congress, and the Congress-JD(S) coalition took over the reins of power in the State.

In 2008, Sanganna (JD-S) defeated Basavaraj Itnal (Congress). The BJP formed the government in the State.

The voters believe that the legislators elected from the constituency have never been from the ruling party, and hence, the constituency has not seen any major development work in the past many years.

Now, if Sanganna, who quit the JD(S) to join the ruling BJP, wins the bypoll, it will dispel the jinx. If not, history repeats.  For Koppal, bypoll and an Opposition party MLA resigning to join the ruling party are both unprecedented. This has aroused curiosity about the outcome of the bypoll scheduled to be held on September 26.

2 BJP leaders breach poll code

A case of violation of the model code of conduct has been registered against two leaders of the BJP for serving meals to the party workers on the pretext of celebrating birthday.

The case has been registered against Virupakshappa and Mardanappa Bisaralli at the Munirabad police station. BJP candidate Karadi Sanganna campaigned at Agalakera and surrounding villages in the taluk on Wednesday.

Meals were served to more than 350 party workers at Agalakera. Officers of the code of conduct vigilance team - Srinivas Kulkarni, deputy director of the Fisheries department and Ashok Kalaghatagi, deputy director of the Food and Civil Supplies department - questioned the workers with regard to the matter.

The two BJP leaders told the officials that the function was organised as part of the birthday celebrations of one of the BJP workers. Since they failed to produce proof for it being the birthday of the worker in question, the officials decided that it was a violation of the poll code and filed cases against the duo.