Date:01/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/01/stories/2008050159810600.htm

Karnataka

Old rivals will battle it out here Key constituency: Karkala

Ganesh Prabhu

Udupi: An interesting battle is on the cards in the Karkala Assembly Constituency in Udupi district. Karkala is well-known for giving a Chief Minister to the State — M. Veerappa Moily. Mr. Moily represented Karkala from 1972 to 1999, by winning six times in a row.

The Karkala Assembly Constituency is located at the foothills of the Western Ghats. It has pilgrim centres for Hindus, Jains and Christians. It houses the 42-foot high statue of Bahubali. The constituency also includes naxal-affected areas. The first police encounter with naxalites in the State took place in Eedu village near Karkala on November 17, 2003, resulting in the killing of two suspected naxalites.

Women outnumber the men voters in the Karkala Assembly constituency. It has a total of 1,41,832 voters, of whom, 76,683 are women and 65,149 are men.

In the 1999 Assembly elections, Mr. Moily’s protégé Gopal Bhandary of the Congress won from Karkala by a huge margin of 28,857 votes by defeating K.P. Shenoy of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP had its sweet revenge when its candidate and the then State convener of Bajrang Dal V. Sunil Kumar defeated Mr. Bhandary by a margin of 9,769 votes in the 2004 Assembly elections. After delimitation, the size of the constituency, which includes 44 villages and the Karkala town municipality, has increased. Six villages from the neighbouring Kaup Assembly constituency — Sooda, Belman, Nandalike, Mundkur, Inna and Mulladka — have been added to Karkala. The addition of these villages is said to be beneficial for the Congress.

It will be a clash of old rivals once again as both the Congress and the BJP have chosen Mr. Gopal Bhandary and Mr. Sunil Kumar respectively for the coming Assembly elections. Mr. Kumar is associated with the Datta Peetha movement of the Sangh Parivar and is a formidable candidate. He is banking on the development works undertaken by him in the constituency. A tough fight between the Congress and BJP is expected.