The Hunter of Shikaripura: 40 years of Yediyurappa’s total dominance on a seat

The first time the BJP lost was in 1999, when Yediyurappa lost to a Congress candidate. The second time was in 2013, when the BJP performed miserably after Yediyurappa had floated a new outfit, Karnataka Jantha Paksha (KJP), after parting ways with the BJP.

Shikaripura was one of the 18 seats the BJP won in its maiden Karnataka elections, with Yediyurappa getting as many as 64.2% of the votes to defeat the Congress’s K Yenkatappa. In fact, before that, the constituency used to be a Congress stronghold.

In the following Assembly elections, in 1985, the Janata Party won a full majority. The BJP won just two seats – of which one again was Shikaripura, besides Belthangady in Chikmagalur district. Yediyurappa repeated his Shikaripura performance of two years ago, securing 53.52% votes to defeat the Congress’s Mahadevana Gowdaru M Patil.

In 1989, he retained the seat, beating Nagarada Mahadevappa, an Independent, by over 2,000 votes. Contesting on a Congress ticket in 1994, Mahadevappa again failed to beat Yediyurappa, who won his fourth term comfortably, again securing over 50% of the votes.

But the 1999 Assembly elections saw Yediyurappa lose to the Congress’s Mahalingappa by 7,561 votes. The state saw a Congress wave that year, with the party winning 132 seats, as Sonia Gandhi in her maiden election contested from Bellary in Karnataka, apart from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.

In 2004, Yediyurappa was back, winning Shikaripura for the fifth time, defeating the Congress’s Shekarappa K by 19,953 votes. He again won the seat in 2008, securing 66.22% of the votes to beat S Bangarappa of the Samajwadi Party (SP) – the victory margin of 45,927 votes his best performance till date.

For the BJP too, the 2008 Assembly elections brought rich dividends – a cache of 110 seats, and a chance to form the government in the state for the first time, with Yediyurappa at the helm.

When in 2012, he parted ways with the BJP following differences and founded the KJP, which contested 203 seats across the state in 2013, the BJP was hit hard. While the KJP won only six seats, it secured about 10% of the votes, damaging the BJP’s prospects of returning to power.

One of the six seats the KJP won was Shikaripura, where Yediyurappa defeated the Congress’s H S Shanthaveerappa Gowda (Shantanna) by 24,425 votes. BJP candidate S H Manjunatha came fourth, securing a mere 2,383 votes.

In 2014, Yediyurappa returned to the BJP. He contested the 2018 Assembly elections from Shikaripura again, and beat Goni Malatesha of the Congress by 35,397 votes.

BSY all the way