BJP's winning spree in undivided Dharwad district continued with its candidate S V Sankanur defeating Janata Dal (S) candidate Vasant Horatti by a margin of over 14,000 votes in the elections to the Legislative Council from the West Graduates' Constituency.
The election was held on June 20 and the counting of votes took place at the University of Agricultural Sciences here on Tuesday.
MLC and former minister Basavaraj Horatti's gamble of baptising his son Vasant into electoral politics by fielding him as Janata Dal (S) candidate came a cropper.
While Sankanur polled 22,496 first preference votes after three rounds of counting, Horatti managed just 8,589 votes. The ruling Congress cut a sorry figure with its candidate P H Neeralakeri remaining a distant third with just 4,600 votes. There were 13 others in the fray.
The constituency covering Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Uttara Kannada districts had registered 49.48 per cent polling. Of the 46,693 votes polled over 7,000 were rejected as invalid.
Regional Commissioner V B Patil, who was the returning officer, announced the results late in the evening. Sankanur maintained the lead from the beginning and went on to increase it as the counting progressed.
This is the third time that the BJP is representing the constituency. Janasangh leader Y S Patil was representing the constituency till 1984. When he decided to retire after his term ended in 1984, he supported H K Patil who went held fort for four successive terms before losing to BJP's Mohan Limbikai in 2008.
Sankanur is 4th time lucky
S V Sankanur's bid to enter Legislative Council succeeded finally in his fourth effort. He had earlier contested the elections to the council from West Graduates' Constituency in 1990 and 1996 and from West Teachers' constituency in 2010 but had failed to make it.
This time, he won with a convincing margin. Sankanur attributed his success to the concerted efforts by BJP leaders, workers and his friends in teaching fraternity. He said, he would work for the cause of graduates in the constituency and raise his voice in the council to get justice to the graduates.
S V Sankanur who was teaching Biology at the Municipal P U College, Gadag, had taken voluntary retirement to be in full-time politics. He is the president of the Karnatak Rajya Vijnana Parishat and Karnataka State PU Employees' Association. He was also the member of senate and Syndicate of Karnatak University.
