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Cong, BJP set for big north K'taka battle today for 14 seats

Maqsood Maniyar| NT

Bengaluru: As many as 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka will go to polls on Tuesday as a part of the third phase of the general elections.

Here’s a bird’s eye view of some of the contests:

Belagavi: Former CM takes on Hebbalkar son

The Belagavi Lok Sabha seat will witness a contest between Congress candidate Mrunal Hebbalkar and former chief minister and BJP man Jagadish Shettar.

Mrunal is the son of Laxmi Hebbalkar, the Women and Children Development Minister.

Caste arithmetic will play a key role in the seat as Mrunal is a Panchamasali Lingayat and Shettar is a Banajiga Lingayat.

As Lingayats mostly stick with the BJP, Laxmi is trying to cobble together enough votes from her populous support bases of Marathas and religious minorities to secure a win for her son.

Congress has been branding the Hubballi-native Shettar as an outsider. Shettar is related to sitting Belagavi MP Mangala Angadi, who wasn’t re-nominated.

BJP is seen to have an edge in the segment but Mrunal is closing the gap.

Chikkodi: Jolle on shaky ground?

Incumbent Chikkodi MP Annasaheb Jolle will be going up against another newbie in Congresswoman Priyanka, the daughter of Minister for Public Works Department (PWD) Satish Jarkiholi, who is regarded as the loftiest leader from the Grand Old Party in Belagavi district.

Senior BJP leaders and former MPs like Umesh Katti and Prabhakar Kore are said to be unhappy about Jolle’s re-nomination.

Observers believe its advantage Congress in the seat.

Bagalkote: Saffron party in pole position

BJP MP from Bagalkote PC Gaddigoudar appears to be sitting pretty as he prepares to take on the novice Congresswoman Samyukta, the daughter of Minister for Agricultural Marketing Shivanand Patil.

Samyukta and her father are from the neighbouring Vijayapura district. Congress’ choice was resisted by another aspirant in Veena, the wife of party MLA from Hungund Vijayanand Kashappanavar.

Both are Panchamasali Lingayats. Veena contested from Bagalkote in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and lost to Gaddigoudar by 1,68,187 votes.

She had even threatened to contest as an independent but dropped the plan.

Vijayapura: INC man hopes to upset mentor

Congress candidate Raju Algur will be taking on his old mentor and BJP MP from Vijayapura Ramesh Jigajinagi.

Vijayapura is one of the five Lok Sabha seats in the state reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs).

BJP is trying to make it six wins in a row in Vijayapura. They have held the seat since 1999 and Jigajinagi had held it since 2009.

Caste and communal politics have become two of the main factors in this contest. Jigajinagi and BJP MLA from Vijayapura, both Hindutva ideologues, have been trying to milk the Neha Hiremath murder by a Muslim student in Hubballi for political gains.

Meanwhile, Congress is hoping Algur will win the support of fellow Dalits from the Chalavadi caste, who number more than two lakh in the segment.

Jigajinagi comes from the Madiga caste, who account for 30,000 in the seat.

Uttara Kannada: Fresh names emerge

Uttara Kannada MP and Hindutva ideologue Anantkumar Hegde has not been re-nominated, paving the way for former Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde-Kageri to contest on a saffron party ticket against Congresswoman Dr Anjali Nimbalkar.

Interestingly, Hegde-Kageri had lost from Sirsi in the Assembly elections last year while Nimbalkar lost from Khanapur.

Both had been sitting MLAs. Nimbalkar is known to be a loyalist of Minister Satish Jarkiholi.

Bidar: Novice vs Union Minister

Sagar, son of Minister for Forests Eswhar Khandre , will be competing for the Bidar Lok Sabha constituency against BJP MP and Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers Bhagwant Khuba.

Two MLAs from Bidar district namely former minister Prabhu Chavan (Aurad) and Sharanu Salagar (Basavakalyan) have in the past expressed disagreement with Khuba’s candidacy, even threatening to not back him come campaign time.

However, Khuba appears to be the favourite against young Khandre.

Kalaburagi: Kharge kinsman tries to regain bastion

Kalaburagi will witness a hugely interesting contest between sitting BJP MP Umesh Jadhav and Congressman Radhakrishna Doddamani, the son-in-law of party national president Mallikarjun Kharge.

The seat is reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs). Kharge, who suffered a shock loss to Jadhav back in 2019, could have chosen to return to his stronghold but the Rajya Sabha MP has decided to field Doddama