Bye-polls to the two Karnataka Assembly seats in the northern districts saw a decent turnout on Saturday, October 30 with no untoward incidents reported. The elections were held for Hanagal in Haveri district and Sindagi in Vijayapura district. Hanagal saw good voter turnout with 83.44% voting while at Sindagi 64.54% voting was recorded till 6 pm. The election results will be declared on November 2. The bye-polls were necessitated due to the death of the former representatives of those two seats. Hanagal was represented by former minister CM Udasi of the BJP, a close confidant of former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, while Sindagi was represented by former minister MC Managuli of the JD(S).
Shivaraj Sajjanar contested as the BJP candidate from Hanagal. Srinivas Mane of the Congress and Niyaz Sheik of the JD(S) are the other major contestants in the constituency. The BJP fielded Ramesh Bhoosanur as its candidate from Sindagi constituency, Ashok Managuli contested as the Congress candidate while the JD(S) fielded Shakila Angadi.
Although the results of the two seats will not have any immediate effect on the political situation in the state, they are being seen as precursors to the state Assembly elections in 2023. The outcomes are important especially for Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who also actively campaigned for the two seats. Similarly, there was participation of heavyweight opposition leaders like former CM Siddaramaiah and state Congress president DK Shivakumar, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and ex-CM Kumaraswamy.
Prior to these bye-polls, in September the BJP had emerged as the most successful party in two of the three municipal body elections in the same region.
While the BJP emerged the winner in Belagavi and Hubballi-Dharwad, it finished a close second in Kalaburagi. Post the results, CM Bommai had claimed those victories as a “sample test” of his government.
(With IANS inputs)