Seasoned campaigners add seasoning to mouth-watering contest

Davangere North constituency has an interesting contest on the cards, between a former minister and the incumbent.

S A Ravindranath of the BJP, a former minister, is up against Horticulture Minister S S Mallikarjun of the Congress. Both of them belong to the Lingayat community (Sadhu Veerashaiva), which has a strong presence in the region.

After delimitation in 2008, Davangere was split into two constituencies - North and South. Ravindranath had represented Mayakonda constituency for three terms consecutively. As the constituency transformed into SC (reserved), the BJP leader contested from Davangere North in 2008 and defeated JD(S) candidate B M Sathish by 53,661 votes.

Ravindranath believes that his simplicity, affability and loyalty to the party would help him win the support of voters in general and Lingayats in particular. Mallikarjun is pinning his hopes on the family’s strong link with people of the community. Candidates matter more to the voters than parties here.

The constituency has 2,33,107 voters, of which 1,17,268 voters are male, 1,15,814 are female and 25 are third gender. 

Kurubas, SC/ST and other backward classes are also part of the constituency. The BJP nominee believes that there is anti-incumbency in the constituency as the sitting MLA did not address the issues related to irrigation and drinking water. On the issue of religious minority status for Veerashaiva-Lingayats, Ravindranath said he is confident that Lingayats would back BJP's stand on the issue.

Arun Kumar, an advocate, said Veerashaiva-Lingayat was not a political issue in the constituency as candidates are not raising it during campaigning.

Mallikarjun is confident that implementation of development works including road, removal of silt from tank, drinking water, establishment of state-of-the-art glasshouse and other social welfare schemes would come in handy for him.

The Shamanur family’s bond with the people may give him the edge in the election, say some observers.

Davangere North

Assembly election results-2013
Winner-S S Mallikarjun (Congress)
Runner-up-S A Ravindranath (BJP)

Poll issue

Irregular drinking water supply
Illegal drawing of water from Bhadra canal causes problem for farmers in tail-end regions