Kollegal writes history!!!

Kollegal (Chamarajanagar), Aug 21:

 History is written and records are broken in Kollegal reserved constituency on Friday. The ruling Bharateeya Janata Party (Bjp) will be representing the segment for the first time ever since the Kollegal Assembly segment is formed in 1962.

The Bjp candidate, Mr G N Nanjundaswamy, has won the by-poll with a comfortable 8,267 votes margin scoring a tally of 49,553 votes over his nearest rival and Congress candidate, Mr S Jayanna, who secured 41,286 votes, in the results that were announced on Friday.

Besides, over two-decade-old record was also broken. In the past 25 years, voters of Kollegal, for the first time, have re-elected a former MLA.

Besides, it is a humiliating defeat for Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Siddaramaiah, in his own backyard. The Kollegal segment has drawn the battle lines for supremacy between Mr Siddaramaiah and the Chief Minister, Mr B S Yeddyurappa.  Mr Siddaramaiah and the former Union minister, Mr Srinivas Prasad, have made Kollegal a Congress bastion riding the party for victory in almost all polls.

Political insiders feel that the Bjp looked more organized and aggressive during electioneering. The Kollegal saw the highest number of Cabinet ministers, 20, campaigning compared to other four segments. The Congress, on other hand, was overly dependent on Mr Siddaramaiah.

The killer pile for Congress was the BSP and JD(S) votes, who secured 21,143 and 16,572 votes respectively, which otherwise predominantly, would have been Congress votes. Though, the BSP candidate, Mr Subhash Bharani, did not make an expected impact he scripted the Congress defeat and the JD(S) has improved its tally by nearly 6,000 votes compared to the last Assembly polls.

However, political observers feel that there was a favorable wave for Bjp from Lok Sabha elections wherein party took the lead in Kollegal, despite lost the elections with a slender margin of 4,002 votes.

Break-up

Bjp – 49,553

Congress – 41,286

BSP – 21,143

JD(S) – 16,572

Victory margin – 8,267

 “Kollegal will see a definite transformation. Voters have reposed faith in the Bjp and the Chief Minister, Mr B S Yeddyurappa’s visionary programmes and I will meet the high expectations. Kollegal remained underdeveloped due to improper utilization of grants and loopholes in implementation of government schemes and my priority would be to bend the back of implementing agencies and put development in war footing,” says

 MLA-elect G N Nanjundaswamy

“We were expected to win, but the illegal means adopted by ruling Bjp to woo voters have overruled our development agenda put forth before electorate. It is not the people’s mandate,” is how Mr S Jayanna, the Congress candidate reacted on the pol outcome.