The solid backing extended by the traditional Congress bastion Narasimharaja Assembly constituency ensured the victory of former Minister Adagur H Viswanath in the Mysore parliamentary constituency.
In this predominantly Muslim constituency, Viswanath, author of two books on current political scenario and known to raise controversies, has polled 57,715 votes against his BJP rival C H Vijayashankar, who has secured 29,791 votes.
Viswanath has won only in three Assembly segments of the eight Assembly constituencies in the Mysore Parliamentary constituency. Apart from Narasimharaja, he has polled the highest votes in Periyapatna, 42,492 against 25,429 got by Vijayashankar and in Chamundeswari, the stronghold of former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah, where Viswanath has secured 54,833 votes against Vijayashankar’s score of 44,246. Viswanath’s overall tally is 3,54,810.
Vijayashankar, on the otherhand, has won in four constituencies, taking the highest of 58,036 votes in Krishnaraja (37,622 by Viswanath), followed by Madikeri 56,194 votes (35,184 votes by Viswanath), Virajpet 54,103 votes (46,861 votes by Viswanath) and Chamaraja 47,362 votes (33,912 votes by Viswanath).
However, the biggest blow came to him from his own taluk Hunsur, where JD(S) candidate B A Jivijaya, who secured 47,298 votes against his Congress rival, who got 45,921 votes, relegated him to third place. Vijayashankar polled 3,47,119 votes in all, while Jivijaya had to remain contended at third position with overall 2,16,283 votes. The four Assembly constituencies where Vijayashankar won the lead are BJP strongholds. Apart from Kodagu district, Krishnaraja, where Vijayashankar recorded the highest votes and Chamaraja Assembly constituency, both in Mysore city, are the other two.
JD(S) was runner-up twice in 1996, when present housing board chairman G T Deve Gowda lost by nearly 12,000 votes and in 2004 when late A S Guruswamy was defeated by a margin of around 10,000 votes. The margin this time between the winner and the runner-up is, however, the lowest so far, 7,691 votes. Vijayashankar maintained lead almost halfway through the battle, but Viswanath inched to victory as the counting progressed.
It is interesting to note that in the last four general elections, Mysore has been alternating its choice between the BJP and the Congress. It was a forte of Congress until 1998. Scion of Mysore royal family Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar had won in 1996, but lost two years later to the same Vijayashankar, when the Congress poll percentage fell from 34.82 to 29.91.
For the first time, the BJP’s share went to the record high of 42.1 per cent from 21.93. The 1999 poll saw a vice-versa, Srikanta Datta defeating Vijayashankar and again a reversal in the 2004 election when the BJP candidate won sending the scion to hibernation. In the last election, Vijayashankar had won by a margin of 10,158 votes. Mysore has kept up this trend in this Lok Sabha election too.
