Date:28/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/28/stories/2008052857900300.htm

Karnataka

Congress makes a comeback in Chamarajanagar district

Correspondent

The party has won all the four seats in the district

CHAMARAJANAGAR: The Congress has won all the seats in Chamarajanagar district after three decades.

Chamarajanagar, which has four Assembly constituencies after delimitation, was one of the few districts in the State where the Congress did not do well in the 2004 elections. The Congress had won only one seat (Santhemaralli) in the district then.

Though the former Minister M. Mahadev and zilla panchayat member C.S. Niranjan Kumar were being seen as strong candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Chamarajanagar and Gundlepet constituencies, respectively, they failed register success.

Vatal Nagaraj, president of the Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha, had to forfeit his deposit as he secured 11,426 votes in Chamarajanagar constituency. The Congress candidate C. Puttaranga Shetty, who won the seat, secured 42,017 votes. Uppara community was being seen as the vote bank of Mr. Nagaraj. However this time, the Congress, Janata Dal (Secular) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) fielded Uppara community candidates. This is being seen as the reason for Mr. Nagaraj’s defeat. The former Minister H.S. Mahadev Prasad, who had won thrice from Gundlepet constituency, helped the Congress to retain the seat this time. Though Mr. Niranjan Kumar gave him a tough fight, he failed to secure enough votes.

In Kollegal (reserve) constituency, withdrawal of nomination by the Congress rebel candidate Jayanna and the efforts of the party high command to nullify anti-party activities of the rebels, helped R. Druvanarayan to win the seat. Parimala Nagappa had registered a landslide victory in the previous elections as the Janata Dal (S) candidate. Ms. Nagappa contested as the BSP candidate this time and lost to R. Narendra of the Congress.