The Maski Legislative Assembly Constituency where bypolls are scheduled to be held on April 17 is likely to see a tough fight between the BJP and the Congress.
Apart from nominees from the BJP [Pratapgouda Patil] and the Congress [R. Basanagouda Turvihal], a dozen local leaders are sweating it out in reaching the rural voters as the constituency includes a few villages carved out from Lingsugur taluk and more than 50 villages from Sindhanur taluk. The candidates and party workers need to traverse three taluks, Lingsugur, Maski and Sindhanur, to cover the villages.
Going by previous election results, Mr. Pratapgouda Patil, who won for the third time from the constitutency in 2008 on BJP ticket, and earlier in 2013 and 2018 on Congress ticket, has proved his individual strength by winning three elections in a row though on different party ticket.
After a year of the 2018 results, Mr. Pratapgouda Patil resigned from the Congress and also as MLA to join hands with the BJP and support the formation of the new government. At present, he is contesting on BJP ticket taking on Mr, Turvihal who is contesting on Congress ticket.
When he contested on BJP ticket in the 2018 election, Mr. Pratapgouda Patil defeated Mr. Turvihal by a thin margin of 213 votes. After unanticipated political developments, Mr. Patapgouda Patil and Mr. Tuvihal are forced to fight each other again.
The Janata Dal(S), which could not put up a fight against the BJP and the Congress in 2008, 2013 and 2018 elections, secured 11,392 votes when Somanath Nayak was its candidate in the 2018 election. Earlier, it secured 3,488 votes when Amaresh was its candidate in the 2013 election and 8,756 votes when Ayyanagouda was the party candidate in the 2008 election.
This time, the party did not opt to field any candidate in the byelection after its State president H.D. Kumaraswamy declared that his party would not fight in the Maski Assembly and Belagavi Lok Sabha bypolls.
As the Janata Dal(S) is not ready to face elections, it will now be a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress in the byelections.
Mr. Pratapgouda Patil, who has filed his nomination papers, will file a second set of nomination papers on March 29 accompanied by his party leaders in a grand procession. Mr. Turvihal, who is yet to file his nomination papers, has already started his campaigning in the rural areas braving the summer heat.
Both candidates have been welcomed warmly by villagers in Sindhanur taluk. Last week, people donated money to Mr. Turvihal to be used for election expenditure, when he was campaigning in Sindhanur taluk.
