Karnataka

Three-way clash in Virajpet segment

Veena Achaiah, K.G. Gopaiah and C.S. Arun Machaiah

VIRAJPET (KODAGU DISTRICT): It is anxious moments for the candidates of the three major political parties in Virajpet Assembly segment in Kodagu district. K.G. Bopaiah of the BJP, C.S. Arun Machaiah of the Janata Dal(S) and Veena Achaiah of the Congress are keeping their fingers crossed in the belief that voters would bless them.

Working for the all-round development of Virajpet constituency, improving infrastructure, steps to solve issues such as the “Bane land” row are on the agenda of all the candidates.

“We [BJP] are working as one team,” Mr. Bopaiah told The Hinduat his party office here. The BJP announced the names of its candidates much ahead of others and obviously Mr. Bopaiah is ahead of Mr. Machaiah and Ms. Achaiah in terms of election campaign. His popularity as the Madikeri MLA in the previous term and the “best budget” of the former Chief Minister, B.S. Yeddyurappa, the abolition of arrack, lottery and other achievements, stood him in good stead, Mr. Bopaiah said.

He blamed his political adversaries for spreading a canard that voters in Virajpet constituency would go by caste (Kodavas) to choose their candidate.

“Throughout my tour of the constituency I have not found that the caste factor was at work,” he clarified. Mr. Bopaiah belongs to the Kodagu Gowda community. The people of Karnataka had decided to bring back the BJP in the State and the same wave was evident in the two constituencies in Kodagu. The Congress candidate was his nearest political rival in Virajpet, he said.

“I am a sportsman, I will always fight for a win,” is what Mr. Machaiah, who is testing his luck on the Janata Dal (S) ticket from Virajpet, had to say when The Hindu met him at his party office in Gonicoppa on Wednesday.

Individual charisma too would work in his favour just as the strength of the party, he said.

Factors such as Ram and mandir would not work here. People know about my contributions to the development of the district in various capacities, including as MLC, he said.

Mr. Machaiah, a Kodava, said that he had started his campaign from the far-off Chembu, Peraje, Sampaje areas and he would upset the calculations of his rivals in the BJP and the Congress. Mr. Machaiah recently resigned as an MLC to jump into the arena.

Asked whether the Janata Dal(S) had a standing in Kodagu, he said, “if the Congress had a standing, the BJP would not have won in the previous elections.” It would all depend on the voting pattern, percentage. The choice of the people would unravel itself only on May 25.

Veena Achaiah is pitted against Mr. Bopaiah and Mr. Machaiah, the other two major players, for the first time from Virajpet after the segment became a general seat from the earlier Scheduled Tribe.

“Voters of Kodagu are very conscious and they are sure to pick me, who is the only woman candidate,” Ms. Achaiah, who started a door-to-door campaign in Virajpet town on Wednesday, told The Hindu. Voting would not take place based on the caste factor in Virajpet, she replied to a question.

“I know the people of the constituency well as I have served as the president of the Kodagu Mahila Congress, president of the Zilla Panchayat and currently as the president of the Kodagu District Congress Committee,” she said.

Ms. Achaiah, a Kodava, said the BJP was her nearest political rival. On the reported dissatisfaction among a section of the Congress on her choice from Virajpet, she said it was just initial hiccups and the dust had settled down.

She exuded confidence saying the Congress has a strong rural base and it would certainly work in her favour.

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