Masterstroke of JD(S) pays, but BJP has itself to blame

It was celebration time in the Janata Dal (Secular) camp on Thursday as the party’s smart move to field Aruna Patil Revoor, widow of BJP MLA Chandrashekar Patil Revoor, bore fruit with a convincing victory for its candidate in the bypolls from the Gulbarga South assembly constituency.

The victory provided the party a much-needed foothold in northern Karnataka.

The Dal is is desperate to expand its base in the region in its efforts to replace the Congress as the main opposition  party in the state.

The ruling BJP which rued its decision of not giving ticket to any member of Revoor’s family, however, tasted a face-saving victory in Kadur assembly constituency which it wrested from the Congress.

The main opposition party, the Congress, had the ignominy of coming third in both constituencies, prompting leader of opposition in the assembly Siddaramaiah and other state leaders to step down, owning moral responsibility for the rout of both the party nominees.

In Gulbarga South, Aruna defeated her nearest rival, BJP MLC Shashil Namoshi by 3,532 votes. Riding on the sympathy wave and a sense of betrayal among the voters after the BJP denied her the ticket, she polled 39,430 votes to Namoshi’s 35,898. Congress candidate Ajay Singh, son of former chief minister N Dharam Singh, got 35,567 votes. Over 115,000 of the 210,000 eligible voters had cast their ballots.

The BJP won the Kadur seat in Chikmagalur district where the sympathy factor did not work for the Congress nominee KM Kemparaju, brother of KM Krishnamurhty whose death had necessitated the bypoll.

BJP nominee YC Vishwanath, a medical practitioner in the area, defeated YSV Datta,  a close confidant of JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda by 13,897 votes. Of the over 125,000 votes polled out of the about 177,000-strong electorate, Vishwanath bagged 55,796 ballots, Datta 41,899 and Kemparaju 30,330.
The results are a severe blow to the Congress, whose dismal show since the 2008 assembly poll debacle has remained uninterrupted. 

The loss in Gulbarga South was more painful for Dharam Singh and Union labour minister Mallikarjun Kharge, considered the top Congress leaders in Gulbarga district.

The campaign for the two bypolls was dominated by the illegal mining issue with the parties blaming one another for encouraging it. The fact that chief minister BS Yeddyurappa himself, along with over 10 of his cabinet colleagues, camped in Gulbarga for a week signifies the importance the party had attached to retaining the seat.

The severe drubbing has shattered the Congress which was oozing with confidence of a grand revival. Leader of the opposition Siddaramaiah quit the post and KPCC president RV Deshpande and working president DK Shivakumar too expressed their decision to follow suit.