Maski Assembly bypoll likely to go down to the wire

Maski Bypolls

A lot is at stake for disqualified MLA Pratapgouda Patil when the Maski Assembly constituency will vote on April 17 in what is a high-voltage battle between arch-rivals BJP and the Congress.

Maski is the last of the Assembly constituencies where bypolls were necessitated due to the defection of the incumbent legislators. Patil had won in 2018 as the Congress’ candidate, before jumping ship to the BJP that led to his disqualification.

Patil’s opponent is the Congress’ Basanagouda Turvihal, who was the BJP’s 2018 defeated candidate. The JD(S) has not fielded a candidate. It looks like victory will not be a cakewalk for either of them, leading to hectic campaigning by leaders of both parties by putting their popularity at stake.

Maski is an ST reserve segment that was created in 2008. In fact, Patil was its first legislator, having won consecutively in 2013 and 2018.

On the ground, there is a palpable sympathy among voters towards Turvihal, who lost against Patil by a slender margin of about 200 votes in 2018. Patil, despite his hat-trick wins, faces some ire for not having done visible work. Farmers from some 50 villages are up in arms demanding the implementation of the Narayanpur Right Bank Canal (NRBC) 5-A canal irrigation project, which Patil opposed.

Farmers have been agitating for the past 140 days demanding this project, which will irrigate their agricultural lands. “Patil opposed it although the DPR was ready. So, we’re creating awareness among people on the government’s laxity,” Adesh Naganur, who is among those involved in the effort to see the project through, says.

This, and the sympathy wave in favour of the Congress candidate, could work against the BJP. Also, several BJP leaders are said to be upset with Patil’s candidature.

There is pressure on Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to ensure Patil’s victory. After all, he was one of the 17 MLAs whose defection helped the BJP come to power.

The segment has about 40,000 Lingayat votes that are traditionally with the BJP. The Kuruba and Muslims voters number around 15,000 each. BJP vice president and Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra is in charge of the party’s poll effort.

Basavaraj, who owns a petty shop in Maski, says development of the constituency can be expected if we vote for different candidates each time. Voting for a single candidate will pave the way for the growth of his followers and not the constituency, he opines.