Congress wins Kodagu, makes inroads into BJP’s fortress

Umar Sharieef | NT

Bengaluru: In the just concluded state assembly polls, the Congress party not only won the race comfortably but also captured Kodagu, considered a BJP’s fortress, by winning Virajpet seat by 4291 vote differences and the Madikeri by 4402 votes, where the BJP had an unbeaten run for the last 25 years.

Congress candidate A S Ponnanna polled 83791 votes in Virajpet and won the race against BJP’s K G Bopaiah, who got 79500 votes. The Virajpet assembly saw the highest voter turnout with 74. 07 per cent in the assembly election held on May 10. In 2018, Bopaiah won with a margin of 13353 votes against Arun Machaiah of Congress.

However, in Madikeri, the Congress’ candidate Dr Mantar Gowda won by 84879 votes against BJP candidate Appachu Ranjan who got 80477 votes. Despite the constituency witnessing massive campaigns by the BJP leaders, the Congress emerged as the winner dislodging the BJP. Even the Prime Minister’s twoday visit to Karnataka didn’t help the party retain its fortress in the state.

Yet, the Congress candidates continued to lead in all the rounds and polled 930 and 663 postal votes respectively. Candidates from Janata Dal-Secular collapsed across the state despite finishing third. Round after round, the Congress improved its tally across the state with the full support including that of STs. As many as 15 MLAs from ST backgrounds contested the Congress ticket and won the election, while BJP managed to win 2 and the JD(S) 1.

While the B J P ’ s manifesto failed to create an impact, the Congress, which staunchly opposed the BJP, war ned the state against corruption, divisive politics, and unrest if it comes to power. The Congress crossed the majority mark of 113 required to form the government and lead the race, while the BJP won 65 seats and the JD(S) 19.