Even as the BJP’s many experiments including that of fielding V. Somanna in Varuna and Chamarajanagar miserably failed, the party offered Puttur, the Hindutva stronghold in Dakshina Kannada, on a platter to the Congress.
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While Hindutva activist Arun Kumar Puthila was a strong contender for the BJP ticket, the party not only denied the ticket to the incumbent, Sanjeev Matandur, but fielded Asha Thimmappa, a relatively lightweight candidate from Puttur. Ashok Kumar Rai, a businessman and philanthropist, who earlier had identified himself with the Sangh Parivar, became the Congress candidate.
The BJP’s efforts to woo voters by bringing in stalwarts, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, its national president J.P. Nadda and others and the ‘fatwa’ by local RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, failed to translate into votes for Ms. Thimmappa, who was relegated to the third position.
On the other hand, almost every BJP supporter chanted the name of Mr. Puthila, who contested as an Independent candidate, while many contributed to his election expenditure upon an appeal by the candidate.
As per the latest trends, Mr. Rai of the Congress had polled 64,687 votes (38.38% of 1,68,542 total polled), Mr. Puthila 61336 (36.39%) votes and Ms. Thimmappa of the BJP had polled 36256 (21.67%) votes. If Mr. Puthila was fielded as the BJP candidate, the Party could easily have won the polls by securing not less than 90,000 votes against the Congress candidate.
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A Sangh Parivar worker, who did not wish to be identified, alleged that a senior BJP leader was adamant that Mr. Puthila should not be given the ticket and the Party should field a weak candidate so as to help his old-time friend Mr. Rai to win the election.
Incidentally, the BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel represents Dakshina Kannada in the Lok Sabha, of which Puttur assembly constituency is a part. Puttur had elected the Congress candidates from 1952 to 1972; elected Urimajalu K Rama Bhat in 1978 as the Janata Party candidate and in 1983 as the BJP candidate, elected Vinay Kumar Sorake of the Congress in 1985 and 1989; former chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda of the BJP in 1994 and 1999; Shakunthala T. Shetty as the BJP candidate in 2004; Mallika Prasad as the BJP candidate in 2008; Shakunthala T Shetty as the Congress candidate in 2013 and Mr. Matandoor of the BJP in 2018.
Ms. Shetty rebelled against the BJP after she was denied the ticket in 2008 and contested as an Independent candidate with the support of Mr. Rama Bhat, who was credited to be the BJP patriarch in the coast, only to lose to Ms. Prasad. The BJP had argued that the candidate was only for namesake while the Party was supreme while fielding Ms. Thimmappa this time.
