BENGALURU: In the closely fought Karnataka assembly elections where the Congress trounced the BJP and JD-S with historic mandates, the party also put up a strong show in JD-S strongholds of Tumkur and Mandya districts, winning 13 Did. Total 18 seats. Tumkur has 10 assembly seats while Mandya district has eight.
In Tumkur district, Congress won seven seats, BJP two and JD-S one. The assembly constituencies of Tumkur include Chikanayakanahalli, Tiptur, Turuvekere, Tumkur City, Tumkur Rural, Koratagere, Gubbi, Sira, Pavagadha and Madhugiri. Similarly in Mandya district, Congress won six seats, BJP zero, JD-S one and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha one.
Mandya has eight assembly segments namely Malavalli, Maddur, Melukote, Mandya, Srirangapatna, Nagamangala, Krishnarajapete and Krishnarajanagara. The party gave the credit of the victory over JD-S to its Rajya Sabha MP GC Chandrasekhar, who is a Vokkaliga leader. According to party leaders, behind the victory in 13 seats in Tumkur and Mandya district is the same person who has been working as in-charge of the two districts for the last two years.
A Congress leader said Chandrasekhar was able to consolidate the Vokkaliga base in these two important districts. “He had taken the party leadership into confidence during the ticket announcement itself and promised the leadership that the party would jointly win at least 10 seats in the district,” said a party leader on the condition of anonymity.
The party leader pointed out that Chandrasekhar, who belongs to the Gangatkar Vokkaliga caste like SM Krishna and DK Shivakumar, had been working tirelessly in these two districts for two years, and his inputs were important for ticket distribution with full support from the party leadership. was important to When the party’s survey went against his wishes.
In Mandya, the party did not win a single seat in the 2018 assembly elections, while it managed to win only two seats in Tumkur.