Many believed former district-in-charge minister had clear edge over Bava; Angara only person to win BJP seat in DK
Many had predicted that Congress would uproot BJP in Dakshina Kannada district and there were many reasons to believe too. While many guessed that it would be 6-2 (Mangalore North and Sullia), a few had even guessed 7-1! It is true that the prediction has come true, but the ‘lone’ BJP seat predicted to be retained by the BJP in the district was ‘Mangalore North’ and not ‘Sullia,’ according to sources in the party.
Perhaps, Mohiuddin Bava himself too would take some time to come to terms that he could win the seat (Mangalore North).
With a lot of development works undertaken by J Krishna Palemar in his constituency, a good public contact with the people at grassroot level and a known philanthropist, there is no reason why Palemar lost the polls (in spite of the anti-incumbancy factor). Then what went wrong where?
If sources are to be believed, Palemar did not taste defeat because the Congress voters did not vote for him. It is said that Palemar lost mainly due to the fact that the BJP voters themselves did not vote for Palemar as he reportedly did not fall in line with top RSS leaders.
Interestingly, it is said that many hardcore Congress voters (including minorities) voted for Palemar while a significant number of traditional BJP voters voted for Bava, giving him an edge over former district-in-charge minister.
While Bava managed to secure only 55,631 votes in 2008 polls, he managed to get 69,897 votes (excluding 8,371 votes polled by JD(S), NCP, SDPI and KJP, which otherwise might have been bagged by the Congress). On the other hand, Palemar had polled 70,057 votes in 2008 while he could get only 64,524 votes in 2013, which is 5,533 votes less than his previous tally – in spite of undertaking several development works in his constituency, irrespective of caste or community.
Speaking to PRESS, he said that the Congress victory is not a real victory. “Their candidate has won by creating negative publicity against me, which the voters have blindly believed. Anti-incumbency factor too has played a major role in my defeat,” he said and added that he would not contest the elections again.
Meanwhile, former deputy speaker N Yogish Bhat, who had won the polls for consecutive four times, too was hopeful of victory at least by a small margin.
But former Commissioner J R Lobo, managed to win the polls by a whopping margin of 12,275 votes. Its no more a secret that the residents of Car Street dumped Bhat, perhaps for a change. “Bhat is a nice person, approachable, but we want some action too,” said a person belonging to GSB community and a resident of Car Street, who did not wish to be quoted.
JD(S) proves costly to Cong in Sullia
Though pundits expected neck to neck fight in Sullia between the BJP (S Angara) and Congress (Dr B Raghu), many believed that the Dr Raghu has an edge over S Angara – mainly due to anti-incumbancy factor, his association with the people of the region and more importantly due to the sympathy factor. Dr Raghu had lost to Angara twice earlier (2004 and 2008).
Though Dr Raghu (64,540) maintained a steady lead almost till the end of counting, Angara (65,913) overtook just three rounds before the end of counting and finally won the polls by 1,373 votes.
The fact that JD(S) candidate Nandaraj Sankesh polled 8,551 votes and SDPI candidate M Koosappa polled 2,569 votes (both put together 11,120 votes), proved costly to Dr Raghu, who lost by a slender margin of 1,373 votes, thus proving that he is unlucky for the third consecutive time.
Among the rest, while U T Khader (Mangalore), B Ramanath Rai (Bantwal) and Vasanth Bangera (Belthangady) managed to win with a margin of more than 15,000 votes each, Abhaychandra Jain (Moodbidri) and T Shakunthala Shetty (Puttur) managed to win with a margin of more than 4,000 votes despite stiff competition from Amarnath Shetty (JD(S)) and Umanath Kotian (BJP) in Moodbidri and Sanjeev Matandoor (BJP) in Puttur.
SDPI rising?
The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI)which is contesting its maiden polls though failed to make any significant impact, has succeeded in drawing the attention of other parties. In fact, the SDPI succeeded to get a total of 26,450 votes in 7 constituencies (did not contest in Belthangady), which is much more than another new party KJP (11,181 votes), which had fielded its candidates in all the 8 constituencies. Other regional parties such as JD(U), NCP, BSP, Pyramid Party of India or RPI failed to make any impact as none of them could cross even 2,000 votes in any constituency, thus proving that there is no scope for any regional party in the coastal districts.
