Stany Bela
Daijiworld Media Network - Beltangady (NDF)
Beltangady, May 10: In seven of the eight constituencies in the district, the BJP candidates are younger than their Congress counterparts. The primary competition in the district is between Congress and BJP. Beltangady is one of the constituencies where senior Congress leader is being challenged by a junior BJP leader. Seventy-three-year-old Vasanth Bangera from Congress is the oldest candidate in the district, while his opponent BJP’s Harish Poonja is the youngest.
Vasanth Bangera, contesting his 9th election, is in the fray against 35-year-old Harish Poonja of the BJP, fighting his first. In 2013 elections, Bangera earned 74,530 votes, while his closest rival the BJP candidate Ranjan G Gowda, son of former MLA Gangadhar Gowda secured 58,789 votes. But in the last five years, there are many significant changes that have happened in the political attire of Beltangady. Political analysts are also struggling to predict a winning possibility because the fight between BJP and Congress is neck to neck.
Congress believes on electoral experience and popularity of Vasanth Bangera.
Bangera won five out of eight elections on BJP, Janata Dal and Congress tickets. This record itself shows his popularity in Beltangady and people’s support to him. His people friendly nature and the efforts to bring funds to the constituency made him very popular. "The party and symbol is not an issue for voters of Beltangady. They only see whether Bangera is contesting or not," says a senior voter from constituency.
"Of course, people are with me and have always put their faith in me during elections. I never did partiality in development projects and never treated any one on the basis of caste, creed or religion. After getting elected, I am a servant of the people of my constituency. I brought maximum funds to my constituency and there is no need for its publicity. People know it very well and they have themselves given publicity to me. I have full faith in them," says Vasanth Bangera.
The election strategy of Congress in Beltangady is mainly based on Bangera’s experience and popularity. Bangera himself lead his campaign team and gave directions to the party workers. In many areas, non party workers also voluntarily campaign for Bangera. Youth Congress and Mahila Congress workers are concentrating on door to door visits while other organizations of party are actively seeking votes for Bangera.
BJP wants to put a break on Bangera’s winning streak by fielding a young candidate.
BJP wants to put a break on Vasanth Bangera’s winning streak through Harish Poonja, a lawyer of High Court and President of Yuva Morcha. Despite his inexperience in electoral politics, Poonja seems to enjoy the trust of the BJP and Sangh Parivar, which appear to believe that he could be the change the people seek and they could be possibly right.
For the past some years, Harish Poonja is active in Beltangady constituency. So majority of voters of this constituency knows him very well. He succeeded to maintain a close relationship with the young generation. His active participation in various events of local youth clubs, social forums made him popular among the youth. As per BJP’s calculation, if new voters and young generation of constituency backed Poonja, victory will be easy.
"Bangera, who was then with the BJP, was young and energetic in 1983 when he entered politics. People wanted a change and voted for him. This time too people want a change and are backing the BJP. It is not so much a case of being anti- Bangera as being pro- Poonja," says a senior citizen of Beltangady.
"Being a Bunt community member, if Harish Poonja succeeds in converting Bunt’s votes into his kitty, we will win the poll with large margin. Union Minister Smriti Irani and Rajnath Singh have already campaigned for our candidate. Expressing their support to Poonja, thousands of supporters, youth joined the procession which was held on nomination filing day. After that, we are feeling entire voters of constituency are planning to bring a change. Definitely, Harish Poonja will give a surprise for district," says a BJP member of the constituency.
As per political analysts, the battle of Beltangady is between the veteran and young, the experienced and the innovative mind. This time people will struggle choosing their representative, because both are eligible to lead them.
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