N Dinesh Nayak/TNN
Mangalore, May 24: Did JD(S) play a role in ensuring BJP's victory in the Lok Sabha polls in Dakshina Kannada constituency? Did the JD(S) local leaders help switch over JD(S) votes to BJP?
It appears so if one looks at the votes received by BJP and the Third Front partner CPM in areas where JD(S) has considerable presence. CPM contested the elections with JD (S) support; performed negligibly in areas where JD(S) candidates earned considerable number of votes in the last assembly elections. Further, JD(S) leaders, including former minister K Gangadhar Gowda joining BJP and ZP president K P Sucharitha Shetty working in favour of BJP is said to be reason why BJP performed amazingly well in JD(S) bastions.
In the three assembly constituencies - Belthangady, Moodbidri and Bantwal - where the JD(S) managed to gain considerable chunk of votes, CPM candidate
B Madhava performed poorly with the votes earned by him not crossing four digits. But Nalin Kumar Kateel of BJP performed amazingly well in these segments against his Congress rival B Janardhana Poojary.
During the last assembly elections JD (S) got 26,083 votes in Moodbidri constituency against 34,841 votes by BJP. This time BJP managed to get 53,184 votes against 49,156 of Congress. Here CPM got 1,994 votes. In Belthangady, JD (S) share in total votes polled was 16,738. But this time CPM got only 2,365 and BJP garnered 66,176 votes as against 54,915 of Congress. Similarly, in Bantwal constituency, where JD(S) received 6,298 votes in the last assembly elections, the CPM got 1,838 votes in the parliamentary elections. Here BJP maintained a lead of 6,851 against Congress.
CPM leaders have accused the JD (S) of not cooperating with them during the parliamentary elections. The BJP-JD (S) alliance is continuing in the local bodies here despite hostilities between the two at the state level. JD (S) members did not hesitate to defy the whip and share power with BJP in the local bodies here. BJP bagged the post of president in four of the all five taluk panchayats for the last term of 20 months with the help of JD(S) and the same experiment is expected to be repeated in ZP where the elections are due for the post of president and vice-president.