Karnataka - Mysore

Fate of several bigwigs hangs in the balance

MYSORE: The fate of several prominent leaders, including former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, former Union Minister V. Srinivas Prasad and Union Minister M.H. Ambareesh will be sealed when 40.67 lakh voters exercise their franchise in Mysore, Chamarajanagar and Mandya districts on Saturday.

The three districts of southern Karnataka are considered to be the heartland of Cauvery politics and it has traditionally played a key role in power politics of the State.

The polling process, which begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m., will decide the political fortunes of 228 candidates contesting for 22 Assembly constituencies.

While 20.51 voters will choose from the 123 candidates in the fray across the 11 constituencies in Mysore district, about 13.09 lakh voters will select among the 65 candidates vying for seven Assembly seats in Mandya district. The remaining 7 lakh voters will have to choose from among the 40 candidates in the fray for the four constituencies in Chamarajanagar district.

Ahead of the elections, the region also saw major political churning with many political leaders changing their affiliations and contesting from parties they had fiercely fought during the 2004 polls.

However, Saturday’s polling comes after days of hectic electioneering in which candidates were forced to go on a door-to-door campaign to seek votes in the wake of the stringent curbs imposed by the Election Commission on display of banners, posters and other publicity materials.

Apart from big names like Mr. Siddaramaiah, who is contesting from Varuna, Mr. Srinivas Prasad, who is fighting from Nanjangud and Mr. Ambareesh, who is in the electoral race from Srirangapatna, the elections will also decide the fate of a number of former Ministers like N. Cheluvarayaswamy, K.R. Pete Krishna, G.T. Deve Gowda, D.T. Jayakumar, H. Vishwanath, H.C. Mahadevappa and K. Venkatesh.

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