The key constituency of Kanakapura is witnessing BR Ramchandra from the Janata Dal (Secular) fight DK Shivakumar from the Indian National Congress (INC) and former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashok from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Located in Karnataka state’s Ramanagara district, Kanakapura comes under the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency, which includes eight assembly seats.
The Congress is the dominant party in Kanakapura and D K Shivakumar — nick-named ‘Kanakapura Rock’ — is a seven-time MLA from the constituency.
In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly polls, Shivakumar won the seat by defeating Narayana Gowda of the JD (S) with a margin of 79,909 votes.
Before casting his vote on polling day, the Vokkaliga leader visited a temple with his son and daughter. “It’s tradition for me to visit a temple whenever I leave home. Today is a big day. It’s also the first time that my son and daughter will vote,” said Shivakumar, adding that the Congress will win a comfortable majority in Karnataka.
During his tenure, Shivakumar undertook many development works including school buildings, power stations, roads, and taluk panchayat buildings.
For the Vokkaligas and SC/ST and OBC communities, Shivakumar remains their favourite.
With token presence so far in Kanakapura, BJP has fielded Ashok, who is also contesting from Padmanabhanagar of Bengaluru.
Ashok, one of the saffron party’s few prominent Vokkaliga faces, is contesting from Kanakapura to woo the powerful community.
Kanakapura was once a stronghold of the JD(S). Ramakrishna Hegde fought a byelection from this seat when he became the first non-Congress Chief Minister of Karnataka in 1983. Before Shivakumar’s entry, PGR Sindhia of the Janata Party (and later Janata Dal) represented Kanakapura for six consecutive terms.
Interestingly, Shivakumar and HD Kumaraswamy of the JD (S) were rivals in Ramanagar district politics (since both Kanakapura and Ramanagara constituencies are in the same district). But after JD(S) formed the coalition government with the Congress in 2018, the two leaders came closer and now have good relations.
Kanakapura constituency has 2,21,430 registered voters, including 1,09,290 men and 1,12,136 women. The major communities are Vokkaligas (1.10 lakh), SC/STs (45,000), Muslims (15,000), a small section of Lingayats (10,000). There are also some 6,000 Kurubas, 5,000 Lambanis, 4,000 Kumbaras, 3,000 Banajigas, 4,000 Christians, and 20,000 categorised as “others”.
The polling to elect the 16th Karnataka Legislative Assembly began on Wednesday morning at 7 am amid tight security arrangements. Voting will continue till 6 pm. Voter turnout is 20.99% in the first four hours of polling in the southern state, informed the Election Commission.
The results of the high-stakes poll will be announced on May 13.