The Chikmagalur constituency, which comes under the Udupi Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency, is witnessing Thimmashetty from the Janata Dal (Secular) up against HD Thammaiah from the Indian National Congress (INC) and CT Ravi from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Fire brand leader CT Ravi of the BJP won the seat in 2018 with a margin of 26314 votes against Shankar BL of the Congress.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Shobha Karandlaje won from Udupi Chikmagalur Lok Sabha (MP) Seat with a margin of 3,49,599 votes by beating Pramod Madhwaraj of the JD(S).
Ravi, who held the constituency for 20 years, is pitted against his one time aide Thammaiah, who quit the saffron party and joined the Congress on being denied the ticket by the ruling party.
The Chikmagalur constituency was a Congress bastion right from 1972, with even former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi contesting the 1978 Lok Sabha election from here and emerging victorious. The same trend was seen in Assembly elections until BJP’s Ravi started winning since 2004.
The constituency has a total of 2,08,432 voters, including general voters, NRI voters and service voters, with the Lingayat, the community that Thammaiah belongs to, constituting around 40,000 voters. Vokkaligas, the community Ravi belongs to, have around 20,000 votes. Chikmagalur also has 45,000 SC/STs, 30,000 Muslims and 23,000 Kurubas.
Out of 224 seats in the Karnataka Assembly, the winning party must have at least 113 seats from the government in Karnataka.
The Karnataka Assembly Election 2023 is underway, and the results for the high-stake polls will be declared on May 13, 2023.