Vijayapura: The traditional opponent Vijugowda Patil has once again got the ticket proving wrong the speculations that the Congress candidate and KPC Campaign Committee President M. B. Patil from Babaleshwar Constituency will enter the fray.
After losing to MB Patil in three consecutive elections, twice to JDS and once to BJP, it was speculated in the BJP circles that the party High Command may choose a new face to take on Patil this time.
The name of Umesh Kolkur who left the Congress and joined the BJP after falling out with MB Patil is doing the rounds.
Being a member of Sarvada JPM which is part of Kolkur Babaleshwar Constituency, Patil who had already achieved a hat-trick in Babaleshwar, was one of the main faces to field him.
However Vijugowda has surprised the local leaders by getting the ticket from BJP for the second time despite having tasted defeat against Patil three times in a row. According to party insiders, the two factors that went in Vijugowda’s favour were the lack of strong leaders in the BJP to field M. B. Patil and Vijugowda’s closeness to Former Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa.
Thus although the party High Command wanted to field a new candidate against M. B. Patil, the party chose Viju Gowda again. Viju Gowda thanked the party High Command for allowing him to contest from Babaleswar.
The question now is whether he will also succeed in beating M. B. Patil and create a record or will suffer a fourth defeat. It can be seen that M. B. Patil has won by a significant margin even after BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned in Babaleshwar Constituency.
