Mysuru-Kodagu: Yaduveer gets lead in six seats as Cong loses Assembly poll advantage

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Mysuru royal family member Yaduveer Krishnadutta Chamaraja Wadiyar, who made his electoral debut by contesting on a BJP ticket from Mysuru- Kodagu constituency, won the seat defeating Congress candidate M Laxman by a huge margin of 1,39,262 votes.

This election was dubbed as a battle between a royal family member and common man. Interestingly, Yaduveer secured the highest number of 1,05,480 votes in Chamaraja assembly segment represented by a Congress MLA while his rival, Laxman, a Vokkaliga, could secure only 49, 083 votes in his community dominated constituency.

The BJP and JD(S) fighting together helped Yaduveer sail through this election easily.

Though the Congress improved its voting percentage compared to last year's assembly polls, it failed to stop the victory of the BJP candidate.

In the previous two terms, BJP candidate Pratap Simha was elected from MysuruKodagu. Of the eight assembly segments in the parliamentary constituency, Congress has won five in the 2023 assembly polls- Narasimharaja, Chamaraja, Periyapatna, Madikeri and Virajpet, The JD(S) won in Chamundeshwari and Hunsur while the BJP could win only Krishnaraja.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was hopeful of wresting the seat from the BJP and worked out strategies riding on his successful implementation of the poll guarantee schemes.

He had announced a slew of development projects for Mysuru and Kodagu in his budget and had camped for 12 days in his home district besides setting targets for all Congress MLA to ensure leads in their segments.

Except for Periyapatna and Narasimharaja segments, Congress failed to secure leads in any of the other Assembly seats.

In the 2023 assembly polls, Congress party candidates had secured 6,48,259 votes in all eight assembly segments together while the BJP secured 4, 18,725 votes and JD(S) 2,78,815 votes.

But in the Lok Sabha polls, BJP candidate Yaduveer secured 7,95 503 votes while Congress candidate M Laxman could garner only 6, 97,540 votes.

The combined vote share of the BJP and JD(S) plus Yaduveer's royal image helped him win the polls, explained Mr Umapathy, political science professor.