Four political stalwarts will not represent their constituencies from Karnataka in the Lok Sabha. Their phenomenal runs in the elections, over several decades have come to a grinding halt due to either miscalculations or charges of nepotism and corruption
Bengaluru: When the 17th Lok Sabha convenes, as many as four prominent faces who have had a phenomenal run in Karnataka and national politics will be conspicuous by their absence.
The octogenarian has been in politics for 50 years, traversing the length and breadth of the country and the state. To him, politics is like duck to water and has been in the forefront for eons.
As the prime minister and the chief minister of the state, he had made enormous contributions in various fields.
But his decision to field his grandson Prajwal Revanna from Hassan for the Lok Sabha election proved to be his nemesis. He expected to win from Tumakuru, but lost to GS Basavaraj of the BJP in excess of 13,000 votes.
The issue of River Hemavathi, which originates in Hassan, is also one of the factors that worked against Gowda.
For the last several years, Kalaburagi (SC reserved constituency) in Karnataka had become synonymous with Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge. He had won the Assembly elections as many as 10 times and was the leader of the opposition in the 16th Lok Sabha.
But this time, Kharge tasted ignominious defeat at the hands of Umesh Jadhav, a Congress entrant to the BJP. He lost by almost one lakh votes. The chief reason for him to lose the election is the alleged nepotism he had for his son, which vexed other leaders from the region, including senior Congress leader Malaka Reddy.
Those considered loyal to him deserted him and openly canvassed in favour of Jadhav. Though Kharge seemed unperturbed with their antagonism, the result was hard to digest. His phenomenal run indeed came to a screeching halt.
Another Congress stalwart, Veerappa Moily has made a name for himself for his erudition and clean image. A trusted Congressman, he was elected as an MP from Chikkaballapura twice (2009 and 2014).
But this time, there was a two-way fight in the constituency. The BJP had fielded BN Bache Gowda. Chikkaballapura is a constituency dominated by Vokkaligas and Kurubas. This being the case, Gowda managed to hand over a defeat to Moily as he too is a Vokkaliga. Moily is from the Savita community. He lost in excess of 1.80 lakh votes.
KH Muniyappa had been the MP representing Kolar since the 1990s. But this time, he lost to BJP’s S Muniswamy, a corporator from Kadugodi in Bengaluru.
Loss in the election is attributed to groupism or factionalism in the party. This being an SC reserved constituency, Muniswamy was certainly not as famous as Muniyappa, but owing to corruption charges against Muniyappa and the Modi wave, Muniswamy reached the shores of victory, with a margin of over 2 lakh votes.
Read Exclusive COVID-19 Coronavirus News updates, at MyNation.