Between 1952 and 1983, several Congress leaders competed and won the seat. But the most prominent leader from Melukote was KS Puttannaiah, a farmer leader and a member of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (a farmers’ movement). He won the Melukote Assembly constituency and became an MLA in 1989.
In 1994, Puttannaiah won by 12,584 votes and went on to raise the voice of farmers’ struggles in the Vidhan Sabha. However, in 1999, Congress gave the ticket to K Kempegowda and CS Puttaraju contested on a Janata Dal (Secular) ticket against him. Puttaraju also fought for the rights of farmers and by occupation, he was an agriculturist. The then-incumbent MLA KS Puttannaiah contested from Raitha Sangha. K Kempegowda won the elections.
In the subsequent elections of 2004, Congress gave a ticket to LD Ravi. Later, Puttaraju from JD(S) defeated KS Puttannaiah from Sarvodaya Karnataka Party. Later, in the 2008 Assembly elections, CS Puttaraju again went on to win the Melukote seat.
However, Puttaraju’s dream of winning the 2013 elections and scoring a hat trick was shattered by Puttannaiah, who won by a margin of more than 10,000 votes. Through this, the Sarvodaya Karnataka Party further strengthened in Karnataka.
However, in February 2018, MLA Puttannaiah died of a heart attack and his son Darshan Puttannaiah contested the elections on a Swaraj India Party ticket. CS Puttaraju contested as a JD(S) candidate and won the elections by a margin of 22,224 votes from the Melukote constituency.
As per a News18 report, there are 97,592 male voters and 98,374 female voters in the Melukote constituency with a total of 1,95,970 voters. It will be interesting to witness what lies ahead for Melukote, an Assembly seat driven by farmers’ movements and leaders, in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections.
Read all the Latest News here
Comments
0 comment