With the Congress finally announcing ticket to former minister H Viswanath, the picture of a triangular fight in the Mysore parliamentary constituency is clear now.
Janata Dal (S) has chosen Kodagu’s former minister A B Jeevijaya and BJP sitting MP C H Vijayashankar are the other two chief contenders for the Mysore Lok Sabha seat.
Despite opposition to Viswanath, the Congress High Command has finally opted for him preferring an on par fight with the BJP on caste grounds. Both belong to Kuruba community. Targeting the Vokkaliga votes, the Janata Dal (S) has fielded Jeevijaya. The election battle will be missing the royal aura in the absence of scion of the Mysore royal family Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, a four-time MP. As the Congress has chosen Viswanath, a former MLA from K R Nagar, formerly in Mysore district and now under Mandya Lok Sabha constituency after delimitation, Wadiyar is not in the fray.
In fact, Wadiyar’s name is not to be found in the Congress list announced for 22 out of 28 seats in Karnataka. There were rumours that he may prefer to contest from Bangalore. Except Bangalore South, the Congress has finalised its candidate for rest of the constituencies.
Wadiyar made his political debut in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections and emerged successful with a margin of over 60,000 votes against his immediate rival K P Shantha Murthy. Though he was re-elected in 1989, he lost as a BJP candidate in the subsequent poll when Congress candidate Chandraprabha Urs, daughter of former chief minister Devaraj Urs and a member of the same Urs community, defeated him by a narrow margin of about 16,000 votes. He returned to the Congress party and won the subsequent two Lok Sabha elections.
However, he lost the 2004 elections to Vijayashankar and since then has been maintaining a low profile. He did not evince much interest in the last year Assembly elections too.
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In all these six elections since 1984, the constituency, in particular the rural areas, where Wadiyar is shown high respect, the royal aura prevailed during the campaign, which the voters will be missing this time. The Palace will fail to witness the hectic campaign activity seen during the campaign period.
With the Congress coming out with its candidate, the election campaign will pick up tempo. So far, it was the BJP candidate carrying on a relentless campaign in the constituency. Now the other two candidates have to catch up with him.
Apart from the campaign as the last one to enter into the poll battle with the delayed announcement of the Congress lit, Viswanath has to manage with the opposition to him within the party as well. Former MLA D Made Gowda and former Mayor Vasu, two Vokkaliga leaders, had spearheaded opposition to his candidature.