BENGALURU: Of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 14 in the south will go for polls in the second phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on April 26.
The constituencies that will witness voting on Friday include Udupi-Chikmagalur, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Mandya, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Chikkaballapur, and Kolar.
A high-voltage fight is expected between Congress and the BJP-JDS alliance in the southern part, where the BJP won 11 out of 14 seats in the 2019 general elections. The Congress and JD(S), which were alliance partners last election, could win one each seat. An independent candidate, who won the Mandya seat, subsequently joined the saffron party. The BJP is hopeful of repeating the triuph in this election as well.
The state has a total of 28 Lok Sabha seats. As per a seat-sharing agreement between the BJP and prominent regional party JD(S), the BJP is contesting 25 seats with the support of JD(S), and JD(S) candidates are testing their luck in three seats—Mandya, Hassan, and Kolar—with the support of the suffron party. Both parties are confident of winning all 28 seats.
When the BJP won 25 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, one each was won by the Congress (Bengaluru rural), JD (S) (Hassan), and an independent candidate (Mandya).
Prominent candidates in the fray
The BJP has fielded Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, a scion of the erstwhile Mysore royal family, from Mysuru-Kodagu, sidelining two-time MP Pratap Simha. Wadiyar will take on Congress candidate M Lakshmana. Mysuru Lok Sabha constituency, which includes two districts of Mysuru and Kodagu, also assumes importance as it’s the home district of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Mysuru has been known for its dynamic politics since its formation in 1977. The district, a Congress bastion that would send Congress nominees regularly to parliament, has been witnessing a suffron wave of late, with BJP candidate Pratap Simha elected accordingly in 2014 and 2019. Other prominent candidates are: Bangalore Rural: C N Manjunath (NDA) and D K Suresh (Cong); Bangalore North: Shobha Karandlaje (NDA) and Rajeev Gowda (Cong); Bangalore Central: PC Mohan (NDA) and Mansoor Ali Khan (Cong); Bangalore South: Tejasvi Surya (NDA) and Soumya Reddy (Cong); Hassan: Prajwal Revanna (NDA) and Shreyash Patel Gowda (Cong); Mandya: H D Kumaraswamy (NDA) and Venkataramane Gowda (Cong).
When the NDA is leveraging the “Modi factor,” the Congress is banking on its populist five-guarantee programme, including free travel for women in state-owned buses, free power up to 200 units, and a Rs 2,000 cash benefit for the female head of a family.
Elaborate arrangements in place
The State Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements to ensure free and fair elections. There are 2,88,19,342 voters, including 1,44,17,530 males, 1,43,87,585 females, 3,067 transgenders, and 11,160 service voters. The number of seat-wise voters is Udupi-Chikkamagaluru (15,85,162), Hassan (17,36,610), Dakshina Kannada (18,17,603), Chitradurga (18,56,876), Tumakuru (16,61,309), Mandya (17,79,243), and Mysuru-Kodagu (20,92,22). There are 28,02,580 voters in Bengaluru Rural seat, 32,14,496 in Bengaluru North, 24,33,751 in Bengaluru Central, 23,41,759 in Bengaluru South, 19,81,347 in Chikkaballapur, and 17,26,914 voters in Kolar seat.
In the third phase, voting will be held in the remaining 14 seats, including: Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davanagere, and Shimoga.
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