Factionalism cost Congress in Mandya

Her defeat has also dented the image of the two leaders of the district, former Union Minister S M Krishna and Housing Minister Ambareesh

The defeat of Kannada actress Ramya by a very narrow margin in the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency has brought into focus the factionalism dogging the Congress, and led to it losing a seat in Karnataka.

Her defeat due to internal bickerings, that came out in the open during the campaign, has also dented the image of the two leaders of the district, former Union Minister S M Krishna and Housing Minister Ambareesh. It has shown that the charisma of the two veteran leaders failed to work.

Ramya lost to Janata Dal (S) candidate C S Puttaraju by a meagre 5,518 votes. While she secured 518,852 votes her rival scraped through with 524,370 votes.

As the campaign intensified, factional fight within the Congress arose openly and often in the constituency from where Ramya won in August 2013 Lok Sabha by-election by a handsome margin.

During this electioneering, followers of Krishna and Ambareesh kept a distance from each other. Their differences lead to allegations that the latter’s followers had supported the JD(S) candidate. There were incidents of protests by one or the other section when the cine actress held rallies. Open remarks by some leaders had added to the woes during the Congress campaign.

According to a report, some Congress leaders in Maddur, Melkote and Srirangapatna segments had failed to make any good efforts for the party’s success. Instead, they indulged in open feuds.

An incident last Saturday of some miscreants putting up flex banners prominently in Mandya holding the Kannada film actor responsible for the defeat of Ramya and demanded his removal from the party. This resulted in a show of anger by his supporters and removal of the flexes.

They had defended him by saying that his constituency had shown a higher turnout in favour of Congress while Krishna’s home constituency had performed poorly. Meanwhile, Ambarish denied the allegations on Monday. This incident stands to show the depth of the factional fights within the Congress in Mandya.

Soon after Ambareesh began campaigning for Ramya after returning from Singapore, there were clear signs that Ramya would retain her seat for the second time after her brief six-month term in the Lok Sabha. However, subsequent incidents led to disenchantment among voters and party supporters, and they shifted their support for Puttaraju of the JD(S) who is also popular for his good work in the constituency.

After experiencing the ‘Mandya politics’ during her hectic campaign within the party, Ramya appears to have had an inkling of the outcome. Just a day prior to the poll results, she had tweeted that she will not be disturbed by the poll results.

“Winning or losing in elections is not much important. Even if I lose in the elections, Mandya will be my home. If I win in the elections, I will be working for the people. Even if I lose in the elections, I will continue,” she had tweeted from London where she was on vacation.