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Congress makes a dent in BJP bastion Hanagal
The BJP’s loss in Hangal is also seen as a ‘setback’ to chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, as it is the neighbouring constituency to his Shiggaon assembly segment in Haveri district, where he had extensively campaigned. This was also the first major electoral challenge for Bommai, after taking charge as CM in July this year.
The Congress in Karnataka snatched victory in Hanagal constituency from the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who has won here three times in the last five elections since 2004. The Congress had last won Hanagal in 2013.
The Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) managed only 927 votes according to data from Election Commission of India (ECI) at 9.30 pm. There were 529 votes for NOTA or none of the above options to express no confidence in any of the contesting candidates.
CM Udasi has been the candidate from this constituency since 1985 when he was first elected as an independent and has since won five times from the seat. He had lost in 2013 when he followed BS Yediyurappa into the newly formed Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) which was later merged back with the BJP after the saffron outfit was routed in the 2013 assembly elections.
The BJP’s loss in Hanagal is also seen as a ‘setback’ to chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, as it is the neighbouring constituency to his Shiggaon assembly segment in Haveri district, where he had extensively campaigned. This was also the first major electoral challenge for Bommai, after taking charge as CM in July this year.
Reacting after the defeat, Bommai said,“In Hanagal, we did not get as many votes as we expected. We did fight but CM Udasi died and the votes that he used to get, we couldn’t”.
Shivaraj Sajjanar of the BJP lost in Hanagal as he managed 80,117 votes or 46.5% of the vote share as against Srinivas Mane of the Congress who got 87,490 votes or 50.9% of the votes.
While Bommai was gracious to acknowledge the good work done by Srinivas Mane, the Congress candidate, the loss is likely to hurt the chief minister and the BJP.
Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said the defeat of the BJP candidate in Hanagal assembly bypoll is actually the defeat of chief minister Basavaraj Bommai as the constituency falls in his home constituency.
Taking a dig at the BJP, the Congress stalwart in a series of tweets said, “In the Hanagal election, the actual BJP candidate was chief minister Basavaraj Bommai. The BJP lost in his home district. The fact is that the people have discarded him despite his emotional talks such as ‘I am the son of the soil’, ‘I will die here’ and ‘I am the son-in-law of this area’.” “I won’t say that this (bypoll result) is an indicator (for 2023). But this is a wake up call that people have used. People want change in Karnataka,” he further said.
Hitting back at the Congress, BS Yediyurappa said that the party should not act like it has “achieved something great” as there is no doubt that the BJP would return to power in 2023 on its own.
