Contest heats up in Hubballi-Dharwad East seat, stiff challenge for Congress

Hubballi: The contest for the Hubballi-Dharwad East Assembly constituency has heated up as leaders have started moving to other parties for a ticket gto the Muslim-dominated seat that is held by the Congress’s Prasad Abbayya.
Durgappa Bijwad of the Congress has resigned from the party and joined the AIMIM, and his new party has announced his name as the candidate for the Hubballi-Dharwad East seat.
Vijay Guntral, who was earlier with AIMIM, has joined the SDPI and his new party has declared him the candidate for Hubballi-Dharwad East.
Before the national parties have announced candidates, the SDPI and the AIMIM have announced names and the JD(S) is expected to announce former MLA Verrabhadrappa Halaharvi, who recently joined the party after quitting the BJP, as the candidate.
Congress MLA Abbayya has won the seat for two terms, so the BJP is eyeing it, keeping in mind anti-incumbency in the constituency.
However, the BJP also has dozens of aspirants seeking the ticket. Among them are Dr Krantikiran, Chandrashekhar Gokak, Basavaraj Amminbhavi, former mayor Venkatesh Mestri.
Nazeer Honyal, the AIMIM district president and corporator, said that with Bijwad’s arrival, the party will be restrengthened, Dalits will be happy as will be minorities. “For sure this time we can expect better results because the candidate was declared before the election dates are out. We will start working from now and reach door to door in the constituency,” he said.
Guntral, the candidate from SDPI, said that sitting MLA Prasad Abbayya had failed to bring social justice to the people in the constituency and never raised voice for the people in the constituency during their crucial movement. The Muslims and Dalits were neglected by the sitting MLA, he said.
“The SDPI is a cadre-based party, people want change in the constituency this time and people are looking to SDPI as an alternative in this constituency,” he said.